A Forbes article that takes aim at "anti-vaxxers" for claiming that the COVID-19 vaccine "changes your DNA" — arguing that technically it does and that's a good thing — had its headline changed without explanation to emphasize that the vaccines "don't alter your DNA."
In a column published Monday that was originally titled, "Yes, The Vaccine Changes Your DNA. A Tiny Bit. That’s A Good Thing," Steven Salzberg explains how a person's immune system slightly alters their DNA after taking any vaccine, in the same way the body responds to any infection, like the common cold. Salzberg is a computational biologist and computer scientist with Johns Hopkins University and co-founder of the influenza virus sequencing project.-- More...