Vaccines act locally in the arm muscle, not targeting the brain
Viral video falsely claims vaccines contain liquid crystals that lodge in brain cells to create electromagnetic receptors, with over 3,000 shares on Facebook. Medical experts confirm liquid crystals are natural matter states, not harmful substances, and vaccines work locally in muscle tissue, not targeting the brain.
- Video with 3,000+ shares falsely claims vaccines contain liquid crystals that create electromagnetic receptors
- Pierre Gilbert, a chiropractor and naturopath, not a medical doctor, recorded the videos in 1996
- Rwanda's 1994 genocide killed 800,000 to 1 million people and resulted from ethnic conflict, not vaccination
- Liquid crystals are natural states of matter found everywhere in living tissue, not harmful substances
La República fact-checkers debunk viral claims that vaccines contain liquid crystals forming electromagnetic microreceptors in the brain. Medical experts confirm vaccines act locally and contain no such components.
A video circulating on Facebook since April claims that vaccines contain liquid crystals designed to lodge in the brain and transform into electromagnetic receptors, supposedly preventing people from thinking. The clip, featuring a man named Pierre Gilbert who presents himself as a doctor, has accumulated more than 3,000 shares and 1,500 replications. Gilbert asserts that this process is already underway and points to the 1994 Rwanda genocide as evidence. None of this is true.
The claim hinges on a fundamental misunderstanding of what liquid crystals actually are. According to Erika Castillo, a PhD in Medical Sciences and founder of cienciagenerika, liquid crystals represent an intermediate state of matter between solid and liquid—they are not specific substances or ingredients, but rather a physical condition that many molecules and biological components can occupy. Some vaccine adjuvants may exist in this state temporarily, she explained, which can help the vaccine remain localized at the injection site and allow the immune system to respond effectively in that area. But this is a far cry from the scenario described in the video.
Vaccines do not redistribute throughout the body targeting the brain, Castillo emphasized. The vaccine components act locally in the arm muscle. Once the immune system recognizes them and produces antibodies, those antibodies circulate throughout the body—as antibodies naturally do. There is no evidence, she stated, that any vaccine component, whether in liquid crystal form or any other state, can react with electromagnetic fields. International experts have reached the same conclusion: liquid crystals are not receptors for electromagnetic fields. Michel Mitov, a senior researcher in liquid crystals at the Center for Development of Materials and Structural Studies in France, noted that liquid crystals exist naturally everywhere in living matter and are not harmful substances in themselves. Helene Galiégue, a specialist in electronics and telecommunications, clarified that liquid crystals are structures that change orientation based on temperature or pressure, altering their color or reflection—not electromagnetic receivers.
The video's invocation of Rwanda's 1994 genocide as proof of this vaccination scheme is equally baseless. According to the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, established by the United Nations, the genocide erupted after the plane carrying President Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundi's president was shot down on April 6, 1994. This event shattered a fragile peace agreement between the Rwandan Patriotic Front, representing the Tutsi ethnic group, and the Hutu-led government. Hutu extremists launched an organized killing campaign, massacring between 800,000 and one million people—a murder rate four times higher than the peak of the Nazi Holocaust. The tribunal has convicted 93 people for these crimes. The genocide resulted from internal ethnic conflict and political breakdown, not from any vaccination program.
Pierre Gilbert, the video's narrator, presents himself as a doctor but is actually a chiropractor, naturopath, and UFO researcher with no expertise in medicine or immunology. The videos were recorded in 1996, not 1995 as sometimes claimed, and discuss apocalyptic scenarios for the year 2000 and a supposed new world order. The World Health Organization describes vaccines simply as an ingenious and safe way to trigger an immune response against a specific disease. The claim that they contain liquid crystals functioning as electromagnetic microreceptors in the brain is false—a fabrication built on misrepresented science and unrelated historical tragedy.
Notable Quotes
Vaccines are an ingenious and safe way to induce an immune response against a specific disease— World Health Organization
Liquid crystals are not receptors of electromagnetic fields; they are structures that change orientation based on temperature or pressure— Helene Galiégue, specialist in electronics and telecommunications
The Hearth Conversation Another angle on the story
Why would someone make a video like this? What's the appeal of the liquid crystal claim specifically?
It sounds scientific enough to seem plausible if you don't know what liquid crystals actually are. The language borrows from real physics and real vaccine ingredients, but twists them into something sinister. It's designed to make people afraid of something invisible and technological.
So the liquid crystals are real, but not in vaccines?
Liquid crystals exist everywhere in nature—in your eyes, in your cells. They're just a state of matter. Some vaccines do use adjuvants that might briefly exist in that state. But that's completely different from claiming they create brain receptors that respond to electromagnetic fields.
And the Rwanda reference—why connect vaccines to a genocide?
It's a rhetorical move. By linking vaccines to one of history's worst atrocities, the video tries to make the claim feel historically grounded, like there's precedent. But Rwanda was about ethnic conflict and political collapse, nothing to do with vaccination.
Who is Pierre Gilbert, really?
A chiropractor and naturopath who made videos in the 1990s about apocalyptic scenarios. He has no medical training. The video got recycled and went viral during the pandemic when people were already anxious about vaccines.
If experts have debunked this so thoroughly, why does it keep spreading?
Because it's scary and it sounds technical. People share it to warn others. The debunking requires understanding what liquid crystals are, how vaccines work, and the actual history of Rwanda. The false claim is simpler.