Fact Check: Did the COVID-19 Vaccine Cause a New Virus Strain?

By Dana Cruz First Posted: Dec 21, 2020 09:27 PM EST

Fact Check: Was The COVID-19 Vaccine Cause for New Virus Strain?

(Photo : Eduardo Munoz-Pool/Getty Images) Arlene Ramirez, RN, director of patient care, receives the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine at Northwell Health's Long Island Jewish Valley Stream hospital on December 21, 2020 in Valley Stream, New York.

A new virus strain was found in the U.K. and some social media posts claimed it was caused by the new COVID-19 vaccine, but is that really the case?

Shortly after news of the new virus strain became known, Twitter started getting these claims about the COVID-19 vaccine as the root cause.

In one tweet, the user said: "BREAKING. New vaccine last week, a new strain of COVID this week, who'd have thunk. Wake up peops.[sic]"

Another post said was no new virus strain at all but the modifications to the virus were really coming from the COVID-19 vaccine.

The U.K. first issued approval for the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on December 2 and vaccinations started on December 8.

Evidently, the claim is false. Alongside the various clinical trials that proved the vaccines were safe and effective, here are some other things you will need to know:

Experts Says New Virus Strain Not Too Concerning Now

In a press release by the U.K. government, it was said that the new virus strain emerged in September and started circulating at low levels in the region until mid-November.

According to BBC, the new strain has become the more common variation of the virus in some parts of England in only a matter of months.

Government advisers said with "high" confidence that it was because the new strain could be transmitted faster than the other coronavirus variants.

But experts say it's not yet clear if this new coronavirus variant will be cause for more concern or may cause more severe symptoms, reported US News and World Report.

If there is one aspect of it that is worrisome, it's only the level of transmission it has shown on England.

Dr. Ravi Gupta of the University of Cambridge in England told World Report that he was worried about the new strain but added that it was too soon to know how ultimately important the development may be.

News Virus Strain Came Before UK Vaccinations

The Quint Fit noted in its fact check that the virus strain came before the U.K. even started administering vaccines to residents.

Following this chain of events, it can be said that the vaccine could not have been the cause of the new variant or the increased transmissions.

Pfizer uses mRNA technology in developing its vaccine, something that doesn't even have the coronavirus in it.

Instead, Pfizer used a piece of genetic code that allows the body to familiarize itself with the virus through the spike protein on its surface.

"mRNA vaccines do not contain a live virus and do not carry a risk of causing disease in the vaccinated person," the US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.

Dr. Shahid Jameel, a virologist and director of Trivedi School of Biosciences, also told The Quint that the vaccine can't give infections to a recipient, pointing to the properties of mRNA.

"The RNA is only a copy of the DNA that makes the spike protein. It's not the complete virus DNA," Jameel said.

In addition to that, experts also believe that the new virus strain won't be able to dodge the COVID-19 vaccine.