Skip to content
Fact Check: Does the Moderna COVID Vaccine Contain Pesticides?
Go to my account

Fact Check: Does the Moderna COVID Vaccine Contain Pesticides?

No.

An article from Real Raw News claims that the military found pesticides in Moderna COVID-19 vaccines. According to the article, “​​U.S. Special Forces under White Hat authority had raided a Moderna Covid-19 vaccine repository and destroyed approximately 250,000 vials of the company’s precious clot shots.” 

The article continues by noting that per “a source within the general’s office” 10 out of 60 vials of Moderna’s vaccine “contained insecticides, or more specifically moderate concentrations of cypermethrin and resmethrin, synthetic pesticides found commonly in products like Ortho Home Defense.”

This is false. Moderna COVID-19 vaccines do not contain pesticides, and none of the reported “pesticides” are listed as ingredients in the Moderna vaccine

A spokesperson from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Immunization Safety Office tells the Dispatch Fact Check via email that “the Moderna COVID-19 Vaccine does not contain a preservative, therefore, synthetic pyrethroids are not ingredients in the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine.”

Vincent Racaniello, professor of microbiology and immunology at Columbia University, also said the claim is false. “This vaccine has been given to millions of individuals and if it contained pyrethroids the side effects would be terrible. They are not.”

“No study has concluded that the Moderna vaccine contains pyrethroids,” he added. “This is another incorrect piece of information courtesy of the internet.”

Infectious diseases specialist and Vanderbilt University School of Medicine professor William Schaffner pointed out in an interview with The Dispatch Fact Check, that if the claim were true,  the vaccine “wouldn’t pass the Food and Drug Administration’s minimum standards for manufacturing.”

“The whole thing seems beyond impossible,” he said.  

Real Raw News has a history of publishing fake conspiratorial stories, which we have fact checked before

The website also displays a disclaimer on its website that reads: “Information on this website is for informational and educational and entertainment purposes. This website contains humor, parody, and satire. We have included this disclaimer for our protection, on the advice on (sic) legal counsel.”

If you have a claim you would like to see us fact check, please send us an email at factcheck@thedispatch.com. If you would like to suggest a correction to this piece or any other Dispatch article, please email corrections@thedispatch.com.

Khaya Himmelman is a fact checker for The Dispatch. She is a graduate of Columbia Journalism School and Barnard College.

Please note that we at The Dispatch hold ourselves, our work, and our commenters to a higher standard than other places on the internet. We welcome comments that foster genuine debate or discussion—including comments critical of us or our work—but responses that include ad hominem attacks on fellow Dispatch members or are intended to stoke fear and anger may be moderated.