Vaccinating people from airplanes is not feasible, contrary to post | Fact check

The claim: Post implies researchers developed technology to forcibly vaccinate people through ‘chemtrails’

A Sept. 5 Instagram post (direct link, archive link) shares a screenshot of a social media post about a supposed new development in mRNA technology.

"Researchers at Yale University have created a new airborne method of delivery for mRNA vaccines," reads the post. “They claim their tests were able to successfully vaccinate mice intranasally – without any injections."

Further down in the post, it claims, "I guess the conspiracy theorists have a right to be concerned what's being sprayed in those pesky ‘Chemtrails.’”

Commenters took the post as evidence that vaccines could be disseminated through the air.

“It's definitely environmental now,” one wrote. “In the air, food, water. They're psychopaths.”

The post was liked more than 100 times in three days.

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Our rating: Missing context

The implied claim is wrong. The inhaled vaccine technology being developed at Yale cannot be sprayed from the sky in a “chemtrail,” as the post suggests. Inhaled vaccines require measured doses delivered directly into the nose. Experts agreed spraying a vaccine from airplanes is not feasible or ethical.

Technical, financial, ethical issues prevent aerial vaccinations

The post appears to be referencing a study published Aug. 16 in the biomedical journal Science Translational Medicine. The study examined a method to deliver mRNA COVID-19 vaccines to mice via the nose, according to Mark Saltzman, a Yale engineering professor who led the team developing the technology.

“In that sense, it is similar to flu mist or other nasal vaccines,” he said. “It must be a metered dose applied in the nose in some way.”

Saltzman’s team developed a way to protect messenger RNA, or mRNA, with polymer nanoparticles long enough to be effectively absorbed without damaging tissue or causing inflammation.

But the development of the technology does not mean people can now be vaccinated from planes flying above them, as the post suggests.

Multiple doctors and researchers unaffiliated with the project told USA TODAY the intranasal vaccines could not be administered in this way.

Fact check: No, CDC didn't remove COVID-19 vaccine adverse events from its website

Dr. Christopher Sanford, a University of Washington physician who specializes in travel and tropical medicine, said spraying any vaccine from miles overhead “can’t even be on the horizon” from a technical standpoint.

“You’re talking about precise doses delivered in the nose compared to spraying it into cubic miles of atmosphere,” he said. “I don’t even know how that could work.”

Dr. Marcel Curlin, an associate professor of infectious diseases at Oregon Health & Science University, said the technical hurdles only multiply when working with mRNA vaccines.    

“mRNA degrades under ambient conditions and the challenges posed by delivery requirements would be insurmountable,” he wrote in an email. “In a standard mRNA vaccine, the vaccine is stored refrigerated, usually shielded from extreme agitation, and delivered in high dose by means that allow effective absorption.”

Kacey Ernst, a professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University of Arizona, echoed the same technical and logistical concerns and added that the financial cost would be astronomical even if spraying were technically feasible.

"I can’t even imagine the cost of developing vaccine compounds at volumes great enough to deliver aerially," she wrote to USA TODAY.

Deborah Fuller, a microbiology professor at the University of Washington School of Medicine, said chickens are sometimes vaccinated through spraying under very specific conditions. They must be tightly housed, and the technique only works with live, attenuated virus vaccines, not mRNA vaccines. It also works best when the chicks preen immediately after application.

"You would have to force people to squish together like chicks and then make them lick each other to make that work so ethically and practically, it’s not realistic," she said.

Cherie Duvall-Jones, a spokesperson for the Food and Drug Administration, said the agency's regulations require informed consent for trials, which would be impossible to get for spraying a vaccine from an airplane.

USA TODAY could not reach the user who shared the post for comment.

Our fact-check sources:

• Mark Saltzman, Sept. 7, Phone interview with USA TODAY
• Dr. Christopher Sanford, Sept. 7, Phone interview with USA TODAY
• Deborah Fuller, Sept. 7-8, Email Exchange with USA TODAY
• Kacey Ernst, Sept. 7, Email exchange with USA TODAY
• Dr. Marcel Curlin, Sept. 7, Email exchange with USA TODAY
• Cherie Duvall-Jones, Sept. 7-12, Email exchange with USA TODAY
• Science Translational Medicine, Aug. 16, Polymer nanoparticles deliver mRNA to the lung for mucosal vaccination
• Yale School of Engineering and Applied Science, Aug. 16, An mRNA COVID vaccine (and potentially more) with nanoparticles, no shot needed
• The Poultry Site, May 4, 2012, Spray Vaccination of Day–Old Chicks at the Hatchery

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