Fact check: Delta variant, not ‘vaccine shedding’, behind surge in new COVID-19 cases – USA TODAY

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The claim: Spike protein of COVID-19 vaccines is causing new Delta variant

In recent weeks, many states began relaxing coronavirus restrictions as COVID-19 cases dropped and vaccination rates crept toward President Joe Biden’s target of partially vaccinating 70% of American adults by July 4.

The U.S. is expected to fall short of that goal, and now the nation faces another setback: the spread of the contagious Delta variant. It now accounts for at least 20% of COVID-19 cases and is on the rise. 

Variants aren’t unexpected. Whenever a virus replicates inside its host, random genetic errors – resulting in slightly altered versions of the original – are a common occurrence. Since the start of the pandemic, there have been thousands of coronavirus mutations. Some strains, like the Delta variant, are more contagious than others.

But some on social media are claiming cases from the new strain aren’t due to the virus but shedding from COVID-19 vaccines.

“The new ‘vARiAnT’ is nothing more than the VX spike pr0teins inf*cting those vxd and unvxd,”  claims a tweet shared in a June 27 Instagram post. Both Twitter and Instagram accounts are owned by the same user, who USA TODAY has reached out to for comment. 

The tweet perpetuates a widely circulating, but grossly incorrect theory that the spike protein generated by the COVID-19 vaccines can somehow cause disease or be shed and affect surrounding unvaccinated individuals.

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Neither is possible. The COVID-19 vaccines simply help the body develop immunity against the virus, including against the Delta variant.  

Vaccine spike proteins cannot cause disease on their own

Vaccine shedding can occur in rare cases with some types of vaccines, but not with the ones currently available for COVID-19.

“As none of the current COVID-19 vaccines authorized for emergency use in the USA contain live SARS-CoV-2 virus, viral shedding is not an issue for these vaccines,” Dr. Matthew Laurens, an infectious disease specialist and vaccine researcher at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, previously told USA TODAY.

The vaccines authorized in the U.S. contain instructions for the spike protein either in the form of messenger RNA (a type of genetic code ordinarily used by our bodies to make proteins) or via a weakened virus stripped of its ability to replicate.

Regardless of the delivery system, the spike protein cannot cause disease on its own.

When a coronavirus enters your body, usually through breathing in virus-laden droplets from other infected people, the infection unfolds like this: The virus binds to a protein on the host cell surface, enters the host cell, replicates, destroys the host cell as new viral particles are made and dumped into the bloodstream. 

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A vaccine’s spike protein can’t do any of this since it’s genetically engineered to only enhance an immune response, is extremely localized once injected and lacks the genetic code to assemble a fully-formed viral particle. Once antibodies against it are made, the spike protein is mostly broken down by the host cell. 

Delta variant is more contagious, but vaccines do help

Emerging in India this year, the Delta variant is the newest variant of concern – what the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is calling a group of coronavirus strains that appear to be more transmissible and result in more severe disease – especially for those who haven’t been vaccinated, experts say. 

What makes the Delta variant so contagious and worrisome to scientists are two mutations that enable easy viral transmission – it’s reported to be 50% more transmissible than the dominant Alpha variant – and immune system evasion. 

This poses a grave concern and threat to poor countries with little to no vaccines, as well as vulnerable areas in the southern U.S. where vaccination rates severely lag behind the Northeast and West Coast. 

“A variant like (Delta) that has more transmissibility will lead to more hospitalizations and more deaths among a population that has low vaccination coverage,” Dr. Henry Walke, director of the CDC’s division of preparedness and emerging infections, told NBC News.

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The key protection against this contagious strain is being fully vaccinated. 

A May study from the U.K.’s Public Health England showed two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine were 88% effective against symptomatic disease from the Delta variant, and even more successful at preventing hospitalization and death. The study, however, found one dose of the Pfizer vaccine was only 33% protective.

Data on how protective the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccine is against the new variant is still in the works, but experts say booster shots likely might provide broader protection, including against the Delta variant.   

Our rating: False

We rate the claim that the spike protein of the COVID-19 vaccines is the cause of the new Delta variant FALSE, based on our research. The Delta variant is a genetically unique version of COVID-19 that was not created by vaccine shedding. Vaccine shedding is a real phenomenon for other vaccines, but it is not possible with the currently authorized COVID-19 vaccines since they do not contain live virus. The spike protein contained in the COVID-19 vaccines in the U.S. is not at all capable of causing disease by itself.

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Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook.