Will the COVID-19 vaccine alter my DNA?

Indirectly, yes. The vaccine causes a few of your cells to express the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, which triggers your B and T cells to respond by making specific DNA rearrangements to enable them to recognize the virus.

Neither the mRNA vaccines (Moderna and Pfizer) nor the recombinant adenovirus vaccines (J&J and AstraZenica) interact directly with your DNA. The alterations these vaccines trigger indirectly in B and T cells are analogous to the alterations in those cells that occur in a natural infection, and to the alterations that occur in response to all infections and vaccines. This is how adaptive immunity and immune memory work.

So technically the vaccine, like all vaccines, alters your DNA. That's a feature, not a bug.

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