Claim: COVID-19 vaccines contain a dormant Marburg virus.

Rating: FALSE

Why we fact-checked this: The post was spotted via Claim Check and can be used to spread vaccine hesitancy.

The bottom line: No COVID-19 vaccine contains a dormant Marburg virus.

What is the Marburg virus? According to the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US CDC), the Marburg virus is an animal-borne RNA virus of the Filovirus family – the same family as the six known species of the Ebola virus. 

The US CDC said that the Marburg virus has a case fatality rate between 23-90% and its clinical diagnosis is difficult due to its signs and symptoms that are similar to other diseases. 

What’s in a COVID-19 vaccine? Based on the list of ingredients of vaccines listed below, COVID-19 vaccines are made up of active ingredients such as a weakened virus or parts of the virus, and excipients. 

According to the US CDC, excipients are additional ingredients such as preservatives, stabilizers, and adjuvants meant to stimulate a stronger immune response.

Publicly accessible: The known ingredients of all COVID-19 vaccines can be obtained by the public through several health agencies such as the US CDC, academic institutions and journals, and the manufacturers of the vaccine. 

• The US CDC has the ingredients of the following COVID-19 vaccines: Pfizer’s COMIRNATY, Moderna’s Spikevax, and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen. The US CDC notes that no changes were made in the ingredients of the vaccines that changed brand names.
• The World Health Organization has the ingredients of Sinovac-CoronaVac.
• The University of Oxford has the ingredients of its Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine. The Philippines Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also has the Patient Information Leaflet of Oxford-AstraZeneca.
• The Philippine FDA has the ingredients of Gamaleya’s Sputnik V vaccine.
• The World Allergy Organization Journal has the list of excipients of COVID-19 vaccines. 
• The University of Cincinnati College of Medicine has a list of all the ingredients of COMIRNATY, Spikevax, Janssen, and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines.

– Lorenz Pasion/Rappler.com

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