mRNA vaccines do not carry graphene in their lipid nanoparticles

You have sent us a video of an interview with a person identified as Karen Kingston, who claims to be a former worker of Pfizer and to have “irrefutable” proof that guarantees that messenger RNA vaccines, such as Pfizer’s and Moderna’s, contain graphene oxide. According to her, the material would be present in one of the molecules composing the lipids nanocapsule (the small lipids bag) that protects the virus genetic material contained in the vial, being this, according to her declaration, commercialised by Sinopeg, an enterprise that shared a news about graphene. This is FALSE. None approved vaccine to date contains graphene oxide in its ingredients, nor is it found in the lipid capsules of th mRNA injections. There are no proofs showing that Sinopeg maintains commercial relations with the pharmaceutical companies which have developed these vaccines, nor that it trades with lipids containing graphene or any of its derivatives.

"The graphene oxide is found in the vaccines [against covid-19], it is irrefutable"

This type of statements ensuring that graphene or some of its derivatives are found in the injections against covid-19 are nothing new. At Verificat we have already denied that this material, isolated for the first time in 2004, is found inside the vials, as some misinformation still circulating today claims. As we indicated at the time, none of the vaccine leaflets approved so far in Europe include this material among their components.

In Fact, “there are many different types” of graphene, Maurici Prato, Heath and Environment leader of the Graphene Flagship consortium indicates to Verificat, explaining explains that the best known consists of “a layer of carbon one atom thick with very good properties for electronics, photonics and other fields” and that should not be confused with graphene oxide, which “carries a complete different structure to graphene that has been used in batteries, sensors, inks…”.

The lipid nanocapsule, a small fatty bag, is an element of the mRNA-type vaccines and serves to protect the genetic material contained in the injections. Each capsule is made up of thousands of copies of just four fat types. One of these fats is called a pegylated lipid, because it is bound to a molecule called polyethylene glycol (PEG). Hence, both Modern and Pfizer vials contain PEG, but contrary Kingston’s claims, this lipid does not contain graphene and it is not made of this material.

Sinopeg and the pharmaceutical companies

Karen Kingston, who according to – unverified – information on her LinkedIn profile worked for the pharmaceutical company Pfizer between 1996 and 1998 (long before the development of a technology that would make messenger RNA vaccines applicable to humans), bases her argument on the fact that graphene oxide is found in the pegylated lipid, one of the four fats that envelop the genetic material of gene vaccines. 

The protagonist of the video comments that when entering the scientific formulation written in English of Pfizer’s pegylated lipid on the internet (2-[(polyethylene glycol)-2000]-N,N-ditetradecylacetamide), abbreviated ALC-0159, one of the first results that appears is the webpage of Sinopeg, an entity based in China specialised in the development and sale of this family of lipids that, effectively, supplies this type of molecule for the manufacture of mRNA vaccines. This, according to her, links the pharmaceutical company to the company, but there is no evidence of this, as Sinopeg is not the only manufacturer of the lipid in question.

Later, Kingston displays on screen an image of a news article published in September 2020 on Sinopeg's website, in which graphene appears in the headline. With this, she infers that the company trades in lipids containing graphene or one of its derivatives. The text, however, is published in the “Industry News” section, where the company publishes news in the polyethylene glycol (PEG) molecule sector in which it is specialised. In this case, they echo a study published in the journal Composites Science and Technology that analyses changes in solubility, the ability to conduct electricity and the energy storage of graphene when combined with a PEG derivative, but nowhere does it mention possible pharmacological applications of the product. 

This research, in which Sinopeg has not participated in any way as can be seen in the paper, neither as a funder nor by providing scientists or materials, does not say that graphene (or any of its derivatives) is present in the products marketed by the company. In fact, when entering “graphene” in the company’s products search engine, the website does not return any results.

In other words, it shows no evidence that the lipids produced by this company contain graphene or any of its derivatives.

Moderna’s pegylated lipid

Later in her speech, the interviewee says that the various pegylated lipids listed in the contents of the Moderna formula are listed under "covid-19 excipients" on the Sinopeg website. This is FALSE. Moderna, like Pfizer, has only one pegylated lipid among its ingredients, and this is not marketed by Sinopeg.

"Moderna's patent lists all the different polyethylene glycol-2000 (PEG-2000). You will find them listed under "Excipients of covid-19" in Sinopeg."

To start with, Moderna uses only a pegylated lipid in its formula, called PEG2000-DMG (1,2-Dimyristoyl-rac-glycero-3-methoxypolyethylene glycol-2000 by scientific name), and this is not found in Sinopeg’s list of of available products.

The Chinese company does market one with a very similar name, mPEG2000-DMG, but its formulation is different from the one used by the British pharmaceutical company.

The virus does not become indestructible

At another point in the interview, Karen Kingston comments that, by developing the lipid capsid and supposedly endowing it with graphene, scientists have "made indestructible" a virus that is, by nature, very unstable. This is FALSE. The lipid capsids do not enclose the virus, but the mRNA segment of the virus that encodes the S protein, which does not have the ability to replicate. Nor are the nanocapsules indestructible.

"They have taken this very unstable virus, this single-helix virus, and made it indestructible."

RNA messenger vaccines contain a piece of the genetic material coding for the S protein. This material "instructs" the cells to produce the protein, so that the immune system recognises it and can act on it in the event of subsequent infection. However, as we have explained in previous verifications, the piece of mRNA contained in the vaccines does not have the capacity to create copies of the virus itself, and therefore infection will never occur.

Nor is it true that the lipid nanocapsules are indestructible. In fact, once they have transported the genetic material into the cell, they fuse with the cell membrane.