![]() government has made grants totaling nearly $2 billion in support of the development of COVID-19 vaccines using fetal cell lines. The PER.C6 fetal cell line was derived from retinal tissue taken from an 18-week-old baby boy who was aborted in the Netherlands in 1985 and later converted into a fetal cell line in 1995. HEK-293 was originally derived from kidney tissue taken from a baby girl who was aborted in the Netherlands in 1972 and later developed into a cell line in a lab in 1973.Īdditionally, Janssen, the pharmaceutical division of consumer product giant Johnson & Johnson, is using the human fetal cell line PER.C6 to develop its vaccine. Several COVID-19 vaccine frontrunners, including those being developed by Moderna, Oxford University/AstraZeneca, CanSino Biologics/Beijing Institute of Biotechnology, and Inovio Pharmaceuticals, are using a human fetal kidney cell line called HEK-293 to develop their trial vaccines. Several more candidates are expected to begin clinical trials before the end of the year. Of these, 10 vaccine candidates have already advanced to clinical trials to test the vaccine candidate’s safety and efficacy. ![]() Pharmaceutical companies are sprinting to have a vaccine ready by the end of the year or by early 2021.Īccording to a tracker from the World Health Organization, there are now more than 120 vaccine candidates in development. ![]() From big pharma to small biotech companies and universities, researchers have been pushing out dozens of vaccine candidates and have fast-tracked promising vaccine candidates to clinical trials in record time. With more than 6.2 million reported cases so far and more than 375,000 deaths worldwide, the burden of disease from the 2019 novel coronavirus continues to mount. The bad news is that many of the leading vaccine candidates for the 2019 novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV2) are being developed using fetal cell lines that were originally derived from the tissues of aborted babies in the 1970s and 80s. The good news is that many of the world’s largest vaccine companies are developing promising vaccine candidates using ethically-derived cells. They have also been used to make approved drugs against diseases including hemophilia, rheumatoid arthritis, and cystic fibrosis.The race is on to find a vaccine for COVID-19. The Vatican statement did not cite by name any COVID-19 vaccines now in use or development.Ĭells derived from elective abortions have been used in the manufacture of vaccines since the 1960s, Science magazine reported, "including current vaccines against rubella, chickenpox, hepatitis A, and shingles. NPR reached out to Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca for comment but did not receive a reply by time of publication. conference said that receiving one of the vaccines "ought to be understood as an act of charity toward the other members of our community" and "considered an act of love of our neighbor and part of our moral responsibility for the common good." Conference of Catholic Bishops released its own statement last week, which said: "In view of the gravity of the current pandemic and the lack of availability of alternative vaccines, the reasons to accept the new COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna are sufficiently serious to justify their use," as it deemed these vaccines' connection to abortion "very remote." It should be emphasized, however, that the morally licit use of these types of vaccines, in the particular conditions that make it so, does not in itself constitute a legitimation, even indirect, of the practice of abortion, and necessarily assumes the opposition to this practice by those who make use of these vaccines." The statement said that "all vaccinations recognized as clinically safe and effective can be used in good conscience with the certain knowledge that the use of such vaccines does not constitute formal cooperation with the abortion from which the cells used in production of the vaccines derive. ![]() Pope Francis approved the text on Thursday, Vatican News reported. it is morally acceptable to receive Covid-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process." The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the Vatican office charged with promoting and defending church morals and traditions, said in a document released Monday that "when ethically irreproachable Covid-19 vaccines are not available. The Vatican says that it's "morally acceptable" to receive a vaccination for COVID-19, even if the vaccine's research or production involved using cell lines derived from aborted fetuses, given the "grave danger" of the pandemic. The Vatican said Monday that it is "morally acceptable" to use COVID-19 vaccines, even if they used "cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process." Pope Francis, who approved the statement, is seen here in January. ![]()
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