COVID-19 vaccines do not contain harmful substances or introduce disease, though those debunked theories continue to circulate on social media.
“The second booster has eight strains of HIV,” says one Feb. 2 post on Facebook. It also says, “81 strains of foreign bacteria! 23% of the population is gonna die.”
The post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)
The ingredients of COVID-19 vaccines are published and do not include HIV.
The person who shared the Facebook post linked to a video in the comments that appears to be where the false information originated. The video is manipulated; it includes footage from an October 2020 report by Vice with different audio from the original video, according to Health Feedback. The audio that was substituted comes from a video by a Canadian group, Together As One, that opposes COVID-19-related public health measures.
Though the Facebook post says the second booster contains eight “strains” of HIV, in the video, a female narrator seems to say “strands” rather than strains. The narrator also says the strands of HIV “completely shuts off your ability to make white blood cells, and if you Google what that disease is, it is HIV.”
PolitiFact and other fact-checkers have reported that COVID-19 vaccines don’t contain HIV. The vaccines bolster the immune system rather than weakening it, as HIV does.
The full lists of ingredients for all three vaccines approved for use in the U.S. — Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson — have been shared by manufacturers.
The post’s reference to a “second booster” is also misleading. The mRNA COVID-19 vaccines are a two-shot primary series with a recommended third shot that is a booster.
The vaccine ingredients do not change between doses, though the size of the dose can vary. Each shot in the mRNA COVID-19 vaccine series, including the booster, has the same ingredients, according to information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and reporting by WCNC Charlotte.
Our ruling
A Facebook post says, “The second booster has eight strains of HIV.”
The ingredients of COVID-19 vaccines are published and do not include HIV.
The vaccine ingredients do not change between doses. Each shot in the COVID-19 vaccine mRNA vaccine series, including the booster, has the same ingredients.
We rate this claim Pants on Fire!
This fact check was originally published by PolitiFact, which is part of the Poynter Institute. It is republished here with permission. See the sources for this fact check here and more of their fact checks here.
