A post shared on Facebook claims the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine contains graphene oxide.

Verdict: False

Graphene oxide is not listed among the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine’s ingredients on the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website. A Pfizer spokesperson denied the claim.

Fact Check:

The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is one of three COVID-19 vaccines that has received emergency use authorization (EUA) from the FDA. It received the EUA from the FDA in December 2020, according to a Pfizer press release.

The Facebook post alleges the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine contains graphene oxide, a material made by oxidizing graphene. However, there is no evidence the vaccine actually contains graphene oxide.

Check Your Fact reviewed the FDA fact sheet for health care providers administering the vaccine and did not find graphene oxide listed among its ingredients. The CDC also provides a list of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine’s ingredients on its website, and graphene oxide does not appear among its active or inactive ingredients there, either.

“Graphene oxide is not used in the manufacture of the Covid-19 mRNA-lipid nanoparticle,” Keanna Ghazvini, a Pfizer spokesperson, told Check Your Fact in an email. (RELATED: Does The Moderna Vaccine Contain Luciferin?)

Massachusetts Institute of Technology chemical engineering professor Allan Myerson also told the Associated Press, “It is not in the ingredient list and there is no way it could be present.”

The claim may stem from a non-peer reviewed report, written by a University of Almeria professor, that alleged to have found indications of graphene oxide in the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine. The University of Almeria said in a statement that it had not carried out a study to that effect and that the sample in the report was “of unknown origin with total absence of traceability,” according to a Google translation.

“The University of Almeria, as an academic institution, fully supports vaccines as a scientifically unquestionable instrument to fight against diseases,” the university also said in the statement.

At the time of publication, over 334 million COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered and over 159 million people have been fully vaccinated in the U.S., according to the CDC.