Fact Check: Do the COVID Vaccines Contain HIV?

Several Facebook posts claim that the COVID-19 vaccine contains HIV. One post claims that “the vaccine has HIV as an ingredient.” Another Facebook post reads: “When 70% of Americans finally realize they’ve been injected with HIV & other poisons, there will be violence in the streets.”

These are false claims. The COVID-19 vaccine does not contain HIV.

A spokesperson from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told The Dispatch Fact Check via email that: “the COVID-19 vaccines approved and authorized in the United States don’t inject people with HIV.” 

The spokesperson added that:“The exact vaccine ingredients vary by manufacturer. Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines also contain messenger RNA (mRNA) and the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen COVID-19 vaccine contains a harmless version of a virus unrelated to the virus that causes COVID-19 (not human immunodeficiency viruses).”