According to Barbara Balanzoni, there is evidence that there is the elusive graphene in vaccines against the new Coronavirus. This would be demonstrated by a document from Pfizer. So the well-known doctor followed by No vax wastes no time and publishes the images on Twitter that would “frame” the pharmaceutical company. She also uploads a https://twitter.com/barbarab1974/status/1636663472124489729, in case there were any doubts about what he wants to say: «And yet there is! Pfizer says so », Balanzoni reports in his tweet. Soon the “scoop” also spreads on Facebook (for example here, here and here): «I read graphene oxide – continues the doctor -. I look forward to an immediate public statement.”
For those in a hurry:
- Balanzoni believes he has found evidence in a Pfizer document on the Spike protein that mRNA vaccines contain the phantom graphene.
- In reality, a careful reading is enough to understand that it is the material that covers the slide used for cryoscopy.
- The document in question is public, as is the literature concerning the use of graphene in certain types of instruments.
Analyses
It is Balanzoni herself who asks «what are you reading?», posting the two screens, relating to a document publicly available online (here). Pfizer’s report concerns the structure of the Spike protein, an antigen produced through Covid vaccines (mRNA or viral vector) in order to stimulate the immune system to produce more efficient antibodies than we would have with simple natural immunity. The first page shown by the doctor bears the title “Structural and Biophysical Characterization of SARS-CoV-2 Spike Glycoprotein (P2 S) as a Vaccine Antigen”, then next to it we see the screen of the seventh page, with underlining – by Balanzoni – of the offending passage:
3.4. Cryo-EM of P2 S
For TwinStrep-tagged P2 S, 4 μL purified protein at 0.5 mg/mL were applied to gold
Quantifoil R1.2/1.3 300 mesh grids freshly overlaid with graphene oxide. The sample was
blotted using a Vitrobot Mark IV for 4 seconds with a force of -2 before being plunged into
liquid ethane cooled by liquid nitrogen. 27,701 micrographs were collected from two
identically prepared grids.
We can immediately notice that this is the introduction to a paragraph n°4 relating to chapter n°3, which begins on the previous page and concerns «Materials and methods» used in the research reported. The text in question instead refers to «Gold Quantifoil R1.2/1.3 300 mesh grids freshly coated with graphene oxide».
What the text is really about
What is it about? According to the doctor Salvo Di Grazia, that is https://twitter.com/MedBunker/status/1636658489010339841 directly in Balanzoni’s tweet, that «is the description of the support for cryoelectron microscopy, a metal disk covered with a thin layer of graphene. In other words, the “slide” for the microscope that serves to visualize the structure of the Spike protein”.
Francesco Cacciante (molecular biologist expert in microscopy, with a doctorate from the Normale di Pisa and popularizer on the YouTube channel “A Caccia di Scienza”) explains to Open, in line with Di Grazia, what it is more precisely about. «Yes, what Di Grazia writes is correct. In electron cryoscopy you have a sample which is the biological one, so you cover it with a material which reflects the electrons, or which absorbs them. In this specific case, however, we are talking about graphene oxide used to cover the slide containing the sample». You can read more here and here.
The “source” and the publications of 2020
The document cited by Barbara Balanzoni is uploaded to the «Public Health and Medical Professionals for Transparency» website, belonging to a group that defines itself as a non-profit, where we find various figures of disinformation on the anti Covid vaccines mentioned, such as Peter McCullough (we talk about it here and here). Chapter 3.4 present in the document, entitled «Cryo-EM of P2 S», is identical to the one present on page 25 of a 2020 pre-print study entitled «BNT162b vaccines are immunogenic and protect non-human primates against SARS-CoV -2» (in the image below a comparison between the pre-print and the Pfizer document). Again, the chapter is located in the «Materials and methods» area.
Graphene oxide in cryo-electron microscopy has actually been used since well before the advent of Covid-19 vaccines, as we can see in a 2018 publication in the journal Journal of Structural Biology and in another from July 2020 in the magazine Biophysics and Computational Biology. In the first we read:
Graphene oxide (GO) sheets have been used successfully as a supporting substrate film in several recent cryogenic electron-microscopy (cryo-EM) studies of challenging biological macromolecules.
Conclusions
The doctor suggests that this demonstrates the presence of the substance in vaccines, for who knows what obscure purposes. In reality, reading carefully, one discovers that the text speaks of the materials and methods used, in particular the reference to the substance so feared by the No vax concerns the coating of the slide.
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