evidence: A Facebook reel posted on 1 August 2024 shared a screenshot of a tweet asking "Why are there patents on viruses?" The screenshot listed AIDS, H1N1, Ebola, swine flu, Zika, SARS, and coronavirus as evidence of viruses being patented. It also listed a series of numbers ostensibly linked to each virus patent. The reel was viewed more than 257,000 times. [...] This attribution is also inaccurate. This patent isn’t for the H1N1 influenza virus, which causes swine flu, but for an aptamer that binds specifically to the H1N1 influenza virus and ways of using the aptamer. It was filed in 2014 by researchers at the National Tsing Hua University in Taiwan. An aptamer is a short strand of nucleic acid (DNA or RNA) that can bind to proteins on cells and viruses, like antibodies. This feature makes aptamers potentially useful for discovery, diagnostic, and therapeutic purposes[1-3]. [...] The first is a patent for the genomic sequence of the virus SARS-CoV-1, which causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). It’s not a patent for the virus itself. It was filed in 2004 by the Public Health Agency of Canada.