Alex Berenson, a reporter who became a prominent vaccine skeptic during the COVID-19 pandemic, said that a Yale University study on long COVID and post-vaccination syndrome found the virus’ spike protein in the blood of people who had been vaccinated but never infected. Berenson has a substantial history of making claims about COVID-19 and its vaccines that have later been debunked.
Berenson cited anonymous sources when reporting this but provided no official findings as the team had not yet published the alleged results as of this writing.
Based on these findings, Berenson speculated that the presence of spike proteins may suggest that the “genetic material” of the mRNA vaccines may have contaminated human DNA. However, he said that this was unlikely.
Crucially, Berenson added that even if this was true, it may have no “clinically significant consequences.”
Snopes has contacted the team at Yale for comment. If and when they respond — or if and when they publish the results — we will update this article.
In December 2024, a rumor began spreading online that a team of researchers at Yale University had found the “spike protein” of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is responsible for the COVID-19 illness, in the blood of people who had never been infected but had been vaccinated.
Social media users shared this claim and suggested it was alarming because it meant the genetic material of the vaccine had “integrated” with human DNA.
For example, on Dec. 21, 2024, one X user said (archived): “URGENT: Yale researchers have found Covid spike protein in the blood of people never infected with Covid – years after they got mRNA jabs. The spike proteins shouldn’t be there. It’s possible that vaccine genetic material has integrated with human DNA, causing long-term spike production.”
Several posts repeated the same claim, and many linked to one report on Substack, written by Alex Berenson. Berenson is a former reporter at The New York Times who has been described as a “vaccine skeptic” due to his accounts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the responses to it. According to The Atlantic, he made numerous disproved assertions during the pandemic. Likewise, fact-checking outlet PolitiFact gave a “false” rating to a claim linked to Berenson that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) had said more young people had been hospitalized from the COVID-19 vaccine than the virus itself.
Berenson’s Substack report was titled: “URGENT: Yale researchers have found Covid spike protein in the blood of people never infected with Covid – years after they got mRNA jabs.”
He was referring to a 2022 study — launched by a team at Yale and led by immunobiologist Akiko Iwasaki — to track the effects of long COVID in an effort to associate symptoms to biological markers (biological molecules found in bodily fluids that indicate normal or abnormal processes, such as illness). They began by recruiting patients with self-reported long COVID symptoms and later added patients with self-reported post-vaccination syndrome (PVS) to the study. They named this study LISTEN, which stands for Listen to Immune, Symptom and Treatment Experiences Now.
Participants are invited to report on their health status and all factors that might contribute to it, including demographics, clinical history, social life and the environment. Some participants are then asked to send in blood and saliva samples. Participants are also invited to take part in video “town halls,” in which the team shares its preliminary findings. Some of these town halls are widely accessible online while others are not.
In his report, Berenson cited two anonymous sources for his claim. One of them, he said, is a participant in the study and “directly heard the reports from the Yale researchers on the conference call,” while the other is a scientist who is not part of the Yale team but is allegedly in contact with some of its members.
What Are Spike Proteins?
Spike proteins cover the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, giving it its crown (“corona”) aspect. These spikes bind to human cells in order to infect them. The spikes themselves do not cause the illness, but they do enable it. However, spike proteins are the ones scientists used to develop the Pfizer and Moderna messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines.
The vaccines place small strands of mRNA with the genetic code for the spike proteins into the body. Those strands of mRNA penetrate certain human cells, known as dendritic cells, which begin to produce spike-like proteins, which spread throughout the body. Later, immune cells use these proteins to produce antibodies that will block the actual virus’ spike proteins from binding to people’s cells and infecting them.
How an Anti-Vaxxer’s Speculation Went Viral
The alleged finding, as outlined by Berenson, is that the team found spike proteins in the blood of vaccinated people who had never been infected by the virus. One of them had received their last jab more than 700 days prior and others had received their last jabs more than 450 days prior. This, Berenson speculated, could mean that the body itself was producing spike proteins after the genetic material “integrated” with human DNA.
However, as of this writing, the team had not published its results. Berenson reported that they were working on posting a so-called “pre-print” — an article not yet peer-reviewed.
Berenson’s speculation spread widely online among vaccine skeptics. However, he added a caveat to his report by saying that the team at Yale had brought forth no proof that the genetic material had “integrated” with the DNA. In fact, lower in his report, he said this would be “unlikely.” Further, he added that the appearance of the spike protein in participants’ samples may not have medical relevance:
To be clear, the finding does not provide definitive proof of genetic integration, or what researchers call “transfection.” For that, researchers must extract DNA from human cells and find the genetic sequences the vaccine delivers. How frequently the spike protein is appearing and whether the levels might have clinically significant consequences are also unclear.
Rather, he speculated that there may have been some “vaccine batches with more DNA contaminant” early in the distribution of new mRNA vaccines.
Snopes contacted the team at Yale via email for clarification. They declined to comment on the nature of the findings. However, they did say they would publish a preprint soon:
The research team is actively conducting a portfolio of studies focusing on post-infectious and postvaccination syndromes (PVS). As part of this work, we had shared some preliminary data on PVS with lab members and participants. This research is ongoing, and we are committed to thorough validation and rigorous analysis. Once the study is complete, we will make the findings publicly available as a preprint and submit them to a peer-reviewed journal. Until then, we prefer not to comment publicly on the details of the research at this stage. We are working diligently to advance this work and look forward to sharing the results soon.
Once they do, Snopes will update this story.
Sources
Berenson, Alex. ‘URGENT: Yale Researchers Have Found Covid Spike Protein in the Blood of People Never Infected with Covid – Years after They Got mRNA Jabs’. Unreported Truths, 19 Dec. 2024, https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/urgent-yale-researchers-have-found.’Comparing the COVID-19 Vaccines: How Are They Different?’ Yale Medicine, https://www.yalemedicine.org/news/covid-19-vaccine-comparison. Accessed 6 Jan. 2025.Ecarma, Caleb. ‘An Ex-New York Times Reporter Has Become the Right’s Go-To Coronavirus Skeptic’. Vanity Fair, 10 Apr. 2020, https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/04/ex-new-york-times-alex-berenson-coronavirus-skeptic.Frequently Asked Questions. https://medicine.yale.edu/ycci/listen-study/faq/. Accessed 3 Jan. 2025.Https://Www.Cancer.Gov/Publications/Dictionaries/Cancer-Terms/Def/Biomarker. 2 Feb. 2011, https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/biomarker.Https://Www.Cancer.Gov/Publications/Dictionaries/Cancer-Terms/Def/Dendritic-Cell. 2 Feb. 2011, https://www.cancer.gov/publications/dictionaries/cancer-terms/def/dendritic-cell.Kertscher, Tom. ‘More Youths Hospitalized for Vaccine than for Virus? False’. @politifact, https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/jun/30/instagram-posts/cdc-says-more-young-people-hospitalized-vaccine-co/. Accessed 27 Dec. 2024.M.Sc, Benedette Cuffari. ‘What Are Spike Proteins?’ News-Medical, 12 June 2020, https://www.news-medical.net/health/What-are-Spike-Proteins.aspx.The Yale LISTEN Study. https://medicine.yale.edu/ycci/listen-study/. Accessed 27 Dec. 2024.Thompson, Derek. ‘The Pandemic’s Wrongest Man’. The Atlantic, 1 Apr. 2021, https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/04/pandemics-wrongest-man/618475/.What Are mRNA Vaccines and How Do They Work?: MedlinePlus Genetics. https://medlineplus.gov/genetics/understanding/therapy/mrnavaccines/. Accessed 6 Jan. 2025.
