A ‘detox’ after Covid vaccination? Experts say it’s nonsense

Podcast host Meghan McCain, the former co-host of “The View,” made headlines when she posted to social media recently in support of a “detox” supplement to be taken after Covid-19 vaccination or infection. The “detox” supplement McCain touted costs $89.99 and is one of several versions sold online. It make claims about its ability to “break down spike protein and disrupt its function” and provide “your body with unparalleled support for cellular defense and detoxification.” Vaccine experts say such claims are nonsense. “There’s nothing to detox from, because the vaccines themselves are not toxins,” said Dr. Angela Rasmussen, a virologist at the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of Saskatchewan. “They’re not toxic and they’re not harmful.” McCain’s X post about the supplement has been deleted, but McCain’s personalized discount code continued to work on the website of the supplement maker, The Wellness Company. Neither McCain’s representatives nor The Wellness Company responded to a request for comment. McCain also posted this week about “concerning data” about mRNA vaccines and said friends had experienced health problems after getting the Covid-19 shot. As part of the post, she shared a video that suggested material in the vaccines could stick around long-term and change a person’s genome. Vaccine experts say that just isn’t true. The messenger RNA in Covid-19 vaccines instructs cells in the body to make a certain piece of the virus’ spike protein — the structure on the surface of the coronavirus. The mRNA vaccine is like a blueprint that the body uses to train the immune system to recognize the virus that causes Covid and protect against it, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease expert at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “MRNA is only in there in minute amounts,” Schaffner said. “The spike protein is metabolized. It’s broken up by our own body very, very quickly. So it’s not in a position to disseminate or be distributed throughout the body requiring some sort of ‘detoxification.’ “It’s simply not scientifically a valid concept.” Since mRNA is so short-lived, vaccine makers do make a modification that allows it to stick around a little longer than it would otherwise, Rasmussen said. “But mRNA, even modified mRNA like in these vaccines, does not stay around forever,” Rasmussen said. “It’s still not a very stable molecule.” Rasmussen said she has also read that some believe the lipid nanoparticle used to get the mRNA into the cells lingers and is toxic. The lipid nanoparticle, Rasmussen said, “also don’t stick around forever.” She said they get broken down at about the same rate the mRNA does, “or even maybe a little before.” Schaffner believes maybe some of the language scientists use to describe how mRNA vaccines work may be unhelpful. “I wonder if the very name of the protein, this ‘spike protein’ just makes people uneasy,” Schaffner said. If scientists called it something like the “key protein” — since it’s like a key that goes into a lock in the cell, which enables the protein to get inside “and then do its good work” — that “might not have evoked quite as much anxiety,” Schaffner suggested. Rasmussen believes people would still misconstrue the science regardless, particularly with leaders in the Trump administration who have spent years undermining the safety of vaccines or have a history of promoting dubious supplements. “A lot of this isn’t misinformation, it’s really disinformation because people who start this stuff know what they’re doing,” Rasmussen said. Dr. Pieter Cohen, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, says the availability of vaccine “detox” products speaks to a bigger problem with the way the United States manages dietary supplements. Unlike pharmaceuticals, which must be tested and approved before they go to market and then comply with strict regulations about how they can be marketed, the US Food and Drug Administration doesn’t have the authority to approve dietary supplements before they are marketed. Fear or distrust of Covid-19 vaccines is an easy target for supplement makers, Cohen said. “This is a perfect scenario for supplements to jump in to the rescue,” Cohen said. “You manufacture a false health concern, and then you have the solution that you can settle with a supplement. It’s really a perfect opportunity for supplement manufacturers to profit from. From something that doesn’t even exist.” It’s hard, he said, to even define what “detoxing” from a Covid-19 vaccine would mean. “Are you trying to wash away the effects that boosted immunity against Covid? Is that the goal? I think it’s a very vague, moving sort of target,” Cohen said. “Or is it more that there’s some fear that the Covid vaccine causes more harm than the government’s letting on. Then the idea is that you sell these supplements to prevent that mystery harm.” “I think it’s a health fear mongering approach and profiting by the fear,” Cohen added. No vaccine is perfect, the experts said, but the risk with the Covid vaccine is extremely small and the problems like a sore arm or a low-grade fever that some of his patients have experienced resolved quickly. “That’s not something that any supplement will help resolve faster,” Cohen said. Research has consistently shown that the mRNA Covid-19 vaccines are safe and effective, and millions of people have gotten them without serious incident. As of May, the FDA required Covid-19 vaccines from Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna to use expanded warning labels with more information about the risk of a rare heart condition after vaccination. Some studies have found that Covid-19 infection itself carries a higher risk of myocarditis or pericarditis than vaccination. Schaffner said if there were true problems with any of the Covid vaccines, the country’s surveillance system would have caught it by now. That’s what happened with the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine: Surveillance identified a rare risk of a severe blood clotting syndrome, particularly among some women. The vaccine is no longer in use. “The system works,” Schaffner said. “These mRNA vaccines are safe, and that’s been seen in millions and millions of patients.” What may be even more dangerous, experts say, is the disinformation surrounding vaccines that drives people to want to take a supplement to detox from them in the first place. “This is a much bigger problem,” Rasmussen said. “It’s important to smack this disinformation down where we can. It’s morally wrong and reprehensible.”