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lite.cnn.com - on gopher - inofficial | |
ARTICLE VIEW: | |
A ‘detox’ after Covid vaccination? Experts say it’s nonsense | |
By Jen Christensen, CNN | |
Updated: | |
10:00 AM EDT, Sat June 7, 2025 | |
Source: CNN | |
Podcast host Meghan McCain, the former co-host of “The View,” when | |
she posted to social media recently in support of a “detox” | |
supplement to be taken after Covid-19 vaccination or infection. | |
The “detox” supplement McCain touted costs $89.99 and is one of | |
several versions sold online. It make claims about to “break down | |
spike protein and disrupt its function” and provide “your body with | |
unparalleled support for cellular defense and detoxification.” | |
Vaccine experts say such claims are nonsense. | |
“There’s nothing to detox from, because the vaccines themselves are | |
not toxins,” said Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Vaccine | |
and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan. | |
“They’re not toxic and they’re not harmful.” | |
McCain’s X post about the supplement has been deleted, but McCain’s | |
personalized discount code continued to work on the website of the | |
supplement maker, The Wellness Company. Neither McCain’s | |
representatives nor The Wellness Company responded to a request for | |
comment. | |
McCain also posted this week about “concerning data” about mRNA | |
vaccines and friends had experienced health problems after getting the | |
Covid-19 shot. As part of the post, she shared a video that suggested | |
material in the vaccines could stick around long-term and change a | |
person’s genome. | |
Vaccine experts say that just isn’t true. | |
The messenger RNA in Covid-19 vaccines instructs cells in the body to | |
make a certain piece of the virus’ spike protein — the structure on | |
the surface of the coronavirus. The mRNA vaccine is like a blueprint | |
that the body uses to train the immune system to recognize the virus | |
that causes Covid and protect against it, said Dr. William Schaffner, | |
an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. | |
“MRNA is only in there in minute amounts,” Schaffner said. “The | |
spike protein is metabolized. It’s broken up by our own body very, | |
very quickly. So it’s not in a position to disseminate or be | |
distributed throughout the body requiring some sort of | |
‘detoxification.’ | |
“It’s simply not scientifically a valid concept.” | |
Since mRNA is so short-lived, vaccine makers do make a modification | |
that allows it to stick around a little longer than it would otherwise, | |
Rasmussen said. | |
“But mRNA, even modified mRNA like in these vaccines, does not stay | |
around forever,” Rasmussen said. “It’s still not a very stable | |
molecule.” | |
Rasmussen said she has also read that some believe the lipid | |
nanoparticle used to get the mRNA into the cells lingers and is toxic. | |
The lipid nanoparticle, Rasmussen said, “also don’t stick around | |
forever.” She said they get broken down at about the same rate the | |
mRNA does, “or even maybe a little before.” | |
Schaffner believes maybe some of the language scientists use to | |
describe how mRNA vaccines work may be unhelpful. | |
“I wonder if the very name of the protein, this ‘spike protein’ | |
just makes people uneasy,” Schaffner said. If scientists called it | |
something like the “key protein” — since it’s like a key that | |
goes into a lock in the cell, which enables the protein to get inside | |
“and then do its good work” — that “might not have evoked quite | |
as much anxiety,” Schaffner suggested. | |
Rasmussen believes people would still misconstrue the science | |
regardless, particularly with leaders in the Trump administration who | |
have spent years or have a of promoting dubious supplements. | |
“A lot of this isn’t misinformation, it’s really disinformation | |
because people who start this stuff know what they’re doing,” | |
Rasmussen said. | |
Dr. Pieter Cohen, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical | |
School, says the availability of vaccine “detox” products speaks to | |
a bigger problem with the way the United States manages . | |
Unlike pharmaceuticals, which must be tested and approved before they | |
go to market and then comply with strict regulations about how they can | |
be marketed, the US Food and Drug Administration doesn’t have the | |
authority to approve dietary supplements before they are marketed. Fear | |
or distrust of Covid-19 vaccines is an easy target for supplement | |
makers, Cohen said. | |
“This is a perfect scenario for supplements to jump in to the | |
rescue,” Cohen said. “You manufacture a false health concern, and | |
then you have the solution that you can settle with a supplement. | |
It’s really a perfect opportunity for supplement manufacturers to | |
profit from. From something that doesn’t even exist.” | |
It’s hard, he said, to even define what “detoxing” from a | |
Covid-19 vaccine would mean. | |
“Are you trying to wash away the effects that boosted immunity | |
against Covid? Is that the goal? I think it’s a very vague, moving | |
sort of target,” Cohen said. “Or is it more that there’s some | |
fear that the Covid vaccine causes more harm than the government’s | |
letting on. Then the idea is that you sell these supplements to prevent | |
that mystery harm.” | |
“I think it’s a health fear mongering approach and profiting by the | |
fear,” Cohen added. | |
No vaccine is perfect, the experts said, but the risk with the Covid | |
vaccine is extremely small and the problems like a sore arm or a | |
low-grade fever that some of his patients have experienced resolved | |
quickly. | |
“That’s not something that any supplement will help resolve | |
faster,” Cohen said. | |
Research has consistently shown that the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines are | |
safe and effective, and millions of people have gotten them without | |
serious incident. | |
As , the FDA required Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and | |
Moderna to use expanded warning labels with more information about the | |
risk of a rare heart condition after vaccination. Some studies have | |
found that Covid-19 infection itself carries a risk of myocarditis or | |
pericarditis than vaccination. | |
Schaffner said if there were true problems with any of the Covid | |
vaccines, the country’s surveillance system would have caught it by | |
now. That’s what happened with the : Surveillance identified a rare | |
risk of a severe blood clotting syndrome, particularly among some | |
women. The vaccine is no longer in use. | |
“The system works,” Schaffner said. | |
“These mRNA vaccines are safe, and that’s been seen in millions and | |
millions of patients.” | |
What may be even more dangerous, experts say, is the disinformation | |
surrounding vaccines that drives people to want to take a supplement to | |
detox from them in the first place. | |
“This is a much bigger problem,” Rasmussen said. “It’s | |
important to smack this disinformation down where we can. It’s | |
morally wrong and reprehensible.” | |
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