Stand up for the facts!

Our only agenda is to publish the truth so you can be an informed participant in democracy.
We need your help.

More Info

I would like to contribute

Ciara O'Rourke
By Ciara O'Rourke May 17, 2021

No, these magnet videos don’t prove the COVID-19 vaccines contain microchips

If Your Time is short

  • COVID-19 vaccines do not contain microchips or metallic ingredients that would cause a magnet to stick to your body. 
 

Some people on social media say they have proof of the debunked claim that COVID-19 vaccines have microchips in them: videos showing magnets sticking to people’s arms where they were injected.

"We’re chipped," one person said. 

No, we’re not. We have reported extensively on how the available COVID-19 vaccines do not have microchips

The vaccines aren’t magnetic either. 

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

Florian Krammer, a professor of vaccinology at the Department of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, told us the claim is "utter nonsense." 

Krammer echoed what other experts have told fact-checkers looking into this claim. 

Featured Fact-check

Al Edwards, an associate professor in biomedical technology at the University of Reading in England, told Newsweek that because the human body is made up of the same kinds of biological materials that are used in the vaccine, "there is simply no way that injecting a tiny fragment of this material" could make it respond to a magnet.

"Most food is made of similar molecules, and eating food doesn’t make people magnetic," he said. 

Edward Hutchinson, a lecturer at the Centre for Virus Research at the University of Glasgow in Scotland, told Snopes that you would need to introduce "a large lump of magnetic material beneath the skin to get the action through the skin that the videos claim to show."

In some cases it is possible to detect metal under the skin using a magnet, according to 2011 case report that documented the skin on a boy’s body tenting when a magnet was held against where he had injured his arm while hammering (the doctor removed a piece of metal that had punctured his skin).  

But according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which has published ingredients lists for the COVID-19 vaccines approved for use in the United States, there are no metallic ingredients. 

"There’s nothing there that a magnet can interact with," Thomas Hope, a vaccine researcher at Northwestern University, told AFP. "It’s protein and lipids, salts, water and chemicals that maintain the pH. That’s basically it, so this is not possible."

We rate these claims False.

 

Our Sources

Facebook post, May 12, 2021

PolitiFact, No, COVID-19 vaccines do not contain nanoparticles that will allow you to be tracked via 5G networks, March 12, 2021

PolitiFact, COVID-19 vaccines don’t use experimental technology, don’t track humans, Jan. 4, 2021

PolitiFact, Biden did not ‘confirm’ or support an agenda to  microchip Americans, Dec. 11, 2020

PolitiFact, No, Democrats aren’t pushing microchips to fight coronavirus, April 23, 2020

PolitiFact, No, the US isn’t developing a vaccine or ‘antivirus’ with a chip to track people, April 3, 2020

PolitiFact, No, chip on COVID-19 vaccine syringes would not be injected or track people, Dec. 15, 2020

Full Fact, COVID-19 vaccines do not make you magnetic, May 14, 2021

Snopes, Do videos show magnets sticking to people’s arms after COVID-19 vaccine, May 12, 2021

Reuters, Metal under the skin? Find it with a magnet: doctor, May 18, 2011

U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine fact sheet for recipients and caregivers, visited May 17, 2021

U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Moderna COVID-19 vaccine fact-sheet, visited May 17, 2021

U.S. Food and Drug Administration, Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine fact sheet, visited May 17, 2021

AFP, COVID-19 vaccines do not contain magnetic microchips, May 13, 2021

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Additional information for people worried about COVID-19 vaccination, visited May 17, 2021

Email interview with Florian Krammer, professor of vaccinology, Department of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine, Mount Sinai, May 15, 2021

 

Browse the Truth-O-Meter

More by Ciara O'Rourke

No, these magnet videos don’t prove the COVID-19 vaccines contain microchips

Support independent fact-checking.
Become a member!

In a world of wild talk and fake news, help us stand up for the facts.

Sign me up