Vaccines against covid-19 do not contain graphene
This material does not appear in the package leaflets, nor has it been found in any of the quality controls carried out
You have sent us through our WhatsApp number several messages in different formats in which it is claimed that vaccines against covid-19 contain graphene oxide, the oxidized form of graphene (a carbon-derived material). This is FALSE. None of the currently approved injections contains this material among its ingredients; it does not appear in the package leaflets, nor has it been found in any of the numerous quality controls carried out by the European and Spanish medicines agencies.
"The content [of covid-19 vaccines] is, mostly, graphene oxide"
As we have already indicated in other verifications, the list of ingredients that vaccines contain can be found in the official package leaflets of each of them. None of the approved injections to date contains graphene, a material based on carbon atoms whose properties include its ability to conduct heat and electricity.
Moreover, it is possible to consult the evaluation report of the vaccines approved by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), which describe the tests carried out on each formulation and the documentation provided by the pharmaceutical companies “as part of the quality assessment” of the vaccines, as the EMA informed Verificat by email.
The Pfizer/BioNTech report, for example, which is available in the same way as those of Moderna, Janssen and AstraZeneca, specifies that the pharmaceutical company “has provided a suitable description of the raw materials and active substance solutions” as well “representative certificates of analysis” supporting the quality of these products.
Quality, safety and efficacy
In the same line, the Ministry of Health’s press office has explained in an email to Verificat that, in order to authorise a drug for marketing, “the scientific evidence on the quality, safety and efficacy of the drug in question must have been favourably evaluated". The drugs must "meet the corresponding quality requirements and be manufactured in such a way as to ensure this compliance in successive batches".
In this letter, the Ministry indicates that in order to guarantee the quality of the products, "the authorities of the European Economic Area, including the AEMPS [Spanish Agency for Medicines and Health Products], perform inspections of manufacturers” at different stages of production and distribution of the drug, whether they are produced within the European Union itself or outside.
Non-official report
Some of the messages circulating on social networks based their claims in an “observational study” published by University of Almeria professor Pablo Campra Madrid, who, according to the centre’s website, focuses his research on climate change mitigation measures in the agroforestry sector. However, this is an unofficial document, that is, it has not been published in a scientific journal, nor it has been peer-reviewed. Campra, who has spread other misinformation throughout the pandemic, such as recommending the use of chlorine dioxide to treat covid-19, a hoax that we have already verified on several occasions, has acknowledged the report’s authorship to Verificat.
The document specifically shows images of an alleged vial (small bottle intended to contain an injectable drug), whose origin is not specified, obtained through electron microscopy, and compares them with others of graphene. It is concluded that they “show a high degree of similarity”, although the authors admit that the images “do not provide any conclusive proof”. The same report says that the analysed vaccine is supposedly from Pfizer, but that its provenance and traceability (product tracking) is unknown.
The University of Almeria has sent a statement in which it claims that “it is absolutely false that the University of Almeria has carried out a scientific study with the results that are being published" in some social networks and blogs, insisting that it is "an unofficial report by a professor of the University on an analysis of a sample of unknown origin with total absence of traceability". The Andalusian institution adds that it "fully supports vaccines as a scientifically unquestionable tool to fight against diseases".