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I spoke with my mom on the phone today and she told me of something she saw on the national TV recently (I don't watch TV). She says that some official person claimed that vaccines contain some sort of "nanoparticles" that remain in the body and can be later used to detect if a person is vaccinated or not. Unfortunately she couldn't remember more details. This was news to me and I haven't been able to find anything like that on the Internet either. I haven't even heard of this being possible, so I'm quite skeptical. To recap:

  • This was claimed on Latvian national TV, but I don't know when. It was recent though (past few weeks).
  • The person claiming that was some sort of official person, but I don't know who. Could have been the minister of health, could have been some head doctor from a large hospital, or whatever. But it wasn't a random person with no relations to vaccines.
  • I do not know what method would be used to test for these "nanoparticles", but I presume a blood test would be needed.
  • I do not know which vaccine they were talking about.

Does anything like this exist? Or is this just another conspiracy theory?

P.S. I am aware that this claim is on a shaky ground, since I can't provide much in the way "who said it where and when". I trust my mother's memory, and I trust that this was an actual claim made on the TV by someone officially-looking - but I also understand that may not be enough for this site. If so, I will accept the closing of this question.

Vilx-
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    I think the vagueness of the claim makes it hard to answer. There's a simple "no" answer: no, the vaccine doesn't contain any special tracking element, for which there are already questions here where the answers make the ingredients of the vaccines crystal clear to any reasonable level of skepticism, and there's a simple "yes" answer which is that your mom or the TV person or both are either confused about what they heard or trying to explain in clear language what an antibody is: not something the vaccine contains, but something the body produces afterwards that could be tested for. – Bryan Krause Oct 19 '21 at 23:28
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    @BryanKrause - Thank you, this is what I wanted to hear. – Vilx- Oct 19 '21 at 23:52
  • I think it would be best to close this question as a duplicate of: https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/questions/43973/are-there-vaccine-ingredients-which-may-not-be-disclosed-hidden-trade-secre – Bryan Krause Oct 19 '21 at 23:55
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    I recall this as a reasonably notable piece of nonsense from a few months ago: https://mobile.twitter.com/TomTaylorMade/status/1401154866257403904 – CJR Oct 20 '21 at 01:36
  • @BryanKrause - I'm not sure if it was claimed that the ingredient is hidden. – Vilx- Oct 20 '21 at 06:34
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    The claim may be a bit vague but these kinds of claims are going round a lot. The downvotes are undeserved IMO. – Jerome Viveiros Oct 20 '21 at 08:50
  • @JeromeViveiros Without a link and quote of a notable source, I think the downvotes are explained, but the lack of close votes is not. I saw this when first posted and hoped the community would edit or close. :( Now I'm closing unilaterally, which I don't like. –  Oct 20 '21 at 14:18
  • @CJR I've had to close. Editing in a notable source if you're aware of one would get it reopened. Thanks. –  Oct 20 '21 at 14:21
  • @fredsbend - It's OK, I expected this might be the case. If I find out more, I'll edit it in. Although a claim made by someone on Latvian TV is probably not going to be interesting for many people anyway. I think the question as it stands can still be useful, because "nanoparticles that track you" is such a conspiracy theory buzzword bingo that there are bound to be more people interested in that alone, than where the claim came from. – Vilx- Oct 20 '21 at 15:36
  • @fredsbend I honestly don't think it's necessary to debunk "vaccine nanoparticles are letting people time travel". – CJR Oct 20 '21 at 15:49
  • It's pretty standard for nutjobs to "forget" their sources. It's always "just google it" or "everyone knows" so if you find a source and debunk it, it was "not that one". – Comic Sans Strikephim Oct 24 '21 at 10:43
  • @Unfair-Ban Did you just insult my mother? – Vilx- Oct 24 '21 at 12:26
  • @Vilx- My apologies. Being scared of needles does not make someone a nutjob an I am sorry I said otherwise. – Comic Sans Strikephim Oct 24 '21 at 23:51
  • @Unfair-Ban It's OK, I was just kidding. I totally understood what you meant. Anyways, I talked more to her and, and she said that it was some doctor or something, and the context was pro-vaccine (that is, the doctor absolutely recommended getting vaccinated), and during the interview the topic came up about detecting whether someone is vaccinated, because there have been cases of falsified documentation lately. And that's where the mysterious nanoparticles came up which piqued her interest. Unfortunately she still does not remember precisely who and where said it. – Vilx- Oct 25 '21 at 07:52
  • You say she saw it on "the national TV." In what nation? – David Conrad Oct 26 '21 at 19:59
  • @DavidConrad - Latvia, it's in the question. :) But we have several "national" channels, and I don't know which one and when. – Vilx- Oct 26 '21 at 22:59
  • @Vilx Ah, sorry, I missed that. Reading too quickly, I guess. – David Conrad Oct 27 '21 at 14:05

3 Answers3

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(in this answer, I'm mainly trying to clarify the term nanoparticles; not knowing the precise claim, I'm not sure what evidence I can provide, not sure how helpful this will be).

"Nanoparticle" is a broad term that generally includes any structure smaller than 1 micrometer in diameter. For instance, Exosomes, a small sphere of fat (lipid) created and used by the human body to shuttle around various molecules, is an excellent example of a nanoparticle.

Both mRNA vaccines use essentially identical fat (lipid) spheres known as lipid nanoparticles to deliver the mRNA to the cell. In this sense, the mRNA vaccines are entirely composed of nanoparticles. However, these would be of very little use for tracking vaccination, because they are consumed performing their function and destroyed by the liver.

Lipid nanoparticles are not designed for ease of detection. Other nanoparticles, such as gold nanoparticles (sometimes referred to as quantum dots in this capacity) would be effective tracers. No such particles (or even metals of any kind) are listed on the tables of excipients discussed previously on skeptics.se. For obvious reasons, they would likely be very easy to detect as a contaminant.

Talk of nanoparticle tracers in the context of a blood test is perhaps a red herring, however, because detecting vaccination is relatively straightforward.

0xDBFB7
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  • The 'listed ingredients' are not at all all 'public knowledge' (disclosed), and also not always what's actually in 'it': ["Moderna to recall COVID-19 doses in Japan after stainless steel contaminants found"](https://www.reuters.com/business/healthcare-pharmaceuticals/japan-finds-stainless-steel-particles-suspended-doses-moderna-vaccine-2021-09-01/) – LangLаngС Oct 20 '21 at 12:15
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    @LangLangC thanks for the rebuke and the link! The investigation [report is worth reading](https://www.takeda.com/4a7623/siteassets/ja-jp/home/announcements/2021/report/moderna-covid-19-vaccine-recall-investigation-report--october-2021.pdf). Very disappointing, looks like the AOI system to detect big stuff wasn't set up right. I'll add some text. – 0xDBFB7 Oct 20 '21 at 14:42
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The talk of vaccine nanoparticles seems to mostly derive from this kernel of truth.

Storing medical information below the skin’s surface

The idea of this research was to utilize tiny amounts of copper microparticles to create an invisible pattern in the skin, storing information about the vaccination. In countries where medical record keeping is limited, this technique allows you to ensure information isn't lost by storing it on the patient.

It is not injected in the bloodstream, but instead forms a tiny and invisible tattoo. This allows the info to be read using a infrared camera. A (modified) smartphone could do it.

This technology was never put into practice. Unfortunately, it nonetheless set off "Mark of the beast" conspiracy theories.

Fizz
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10ebbor10
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    Neat! This is very intresting! – Vilx- Oct 20 '21 at 08:22
  • So somebody may have confused these copper micro particle tattoos with the lipid nano particles use to transfer the mRNA into the cell (refer to answer by @0xDBFB7), et voilà, conspiracy! – Hartmut Braun Oct 20 '21 at 11:39
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    IIRC the most common one nowadays is the Gates-microchip one https://www.bbc.com/news/52847648 ; https://www.cnbc.com/2020/07/22/bill-gates-denies-conspiracy-theories-that-say-he-wants-to-use-coronavirus-vaccines-to-implant-tracking-devices.html – Fizz Oct 20 '21 at 13:06
  • [Here's the paper](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7532118/) discussed in the linked news. – Nat Oct 21 '21 at 01:01
  • [Here's the patent](https://patents.justia.com/patent/20210290921), published about a month ago (2021-09-23). – Nat Oct 21 '21 at 01:23
  • Looks like the patent (written by the same authors, in advance of the academic article, which is normal practice) mentions tattooing, though unlike the academic articles, it discusses a lot of other applications and targets: **"_Microdevices for biomedical applications can be formulated for oral administration, for subcutaneous, intraperitoneal or intramuscular injection via needle or cannula, for topical application to a mucosal region such as intranasal or rectal, or by scarification to the epidermis._"**. – Nat Oct 21 '21 at 01:46
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It is the presence of antibodies that can be detected.
The website healthcare-in-europe.com has posted this:

Covid-19
Rapid blood test detects vaccination

A team of Johns Hopkins researchers has developed a rapid blood test that could confirm a person has been vaccinated while they wait to board a plane or enter a sporting event.

Their Covid-19 antibody test is similar to one used at home to determine blood type, where the user pricks a finger and places a drop of blood on a card. A fusion protein developed by the research team is housed on the card and detects Covid-19 antibodies, tiny proteins in the blood the immune system produces to "remember" viral encounters and provide immunity to future infections. Results come back in less than five minutes, faster than current lateral flow tests to detect antibodies at point of care, while also potentially providing a clearer result.

A "nanoparticle" is a very small thing of no specific type, so it could include antibodies. The vaccines do contain nanoparticles, but it is the antibodies which are detected. They are produced by the body's immune system.

Weather Vane
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  • I found this too, and also good reasons why antibodies shouldn't be used to detect if someone has vaccinated (it's too imprecise). However I think she would have noticed the difference, so I do think the claim was about some different kind of nanoparticles. (P.S. it's not my downvote) – Vilx- Oct 19 '21 at 23:17
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    @Vilx the question asks "does anything like this exist?" Perhaps I should have left this as a comment, due to the third-hand nature of the report, which admits the vagueness and possible inaccuracy. – Weather Vane Oct 19 '21 at 23:19