evidence: Also, while the COVID-19 vaccines may be new, the mRNA technology used to create them has been used for decades in treatments for cancer, influenza, Zika and rabies. This experience has informed us that unknown, delayed side effects show up within two months of receiving the vaccine. These vaccines have been in use for many months, since the first vaccine trials were conducted over a year ago. There are no long-term side effects to worry about. [...] 7. Myth: The COVID-19 vaccines will alter your DNA. This is FALSE. "The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines use messenger RNA (mRNA) to protect us from COVID-19, and I think that is where this rumor comes from," says Dr. Cunningham. "mRNA gives our cells the blueprints for the factories that will build the protein to protect us from COVID-19. People get scared that mRNA will cause the virus to go into our DNA and mutate us, but it does not even go into the center part of the cell where we have our DNA. It doesn’t affect DNA at all."