Vaccines Do Not Contain Aborted Fetues or Cells

Viruses can be a challenge to grow in a lab setting as they are basically inert until placed within a human or animal cell. There a few viral diseases that are on the current CDC vaccine schedule. To make a vaccine, a large stock of the virus has to be created first. To do this a cell line is used as a growing medium for the virus. A cell line is immortalized cells, usually cancer cells that can continue to grow in a lab setting over and over again. These cell lines are very resilient and can be placed on ice when not needed and then thawed out and placed in growth serum when they become needed(4). Depending on the virus, there are different cell lines that are both animal and human cells that can be used. For example when growing the hepatitis A virus a rhesus monkey kidney cell line is used(2). In the case of human cells for growing vaccines there are two embryonic cell lines that were obtained through a legally terminated pregnancy in the 1960s. Since these two cell lines have been made no other source of human fetal cells have been used.

(3)

These cells are used to grow the virus they do not make it into the actual vaccine. Then chemicals used to inactivate the viral vaccines lyse the cells that the virus resides in. When the cell is lysed the cellular components are no longer protected so they are degraded by the chemicals used to clean and purify the virus. Therefore there are not cells of any type within the viral vaccines that are on the CDC current schedule(1). 


References:

¹Children's Hospital. (2014, November 5). DNA. Retrieved May 1, 2020, from https://www.chop.edu/centers-programs/vaccine-education-center/vaccine-ingredients/dna

²Provost, P. J., & Hilleman, M. R. (1979). Propagation of Human Hepatitis A Virus in Cell Culture in Vitro. Experimental Biology and Medicine, 160(2), 213–221. doi: 10.3181/00379727-160-40422 

³Skloot, R. (2010, December 13). 'Immortal' Cells Of Henrietta Lacks Live On In Labs. Retrieved May 1, 2020, from https://www.npr.org/2010/12/13/132030076/henrietta-lacks-immortal-cells-live-on-in-labs 

⁴Thomson, J. A., & Odorico, J. S. (2000). Human embryonic stem cell and embryonic germ cell lines. Trends in Biotechnology, 18(2), 53–57. doi: 10.1016/s0167-7799(99)01410-9