Posted on 10/08/2020 10:18:55 AM PDT by PoeToaster
This week, President Donald Trump extolled the cutting-edge coronavirus treatments he received as “miracles coming down from God.” If that’s true, then God employs cell lines derived from human fetal tissue.
The emergency antibody that Trump received last week was developed with the use of a cell line originally derived from abortion tissue, according to Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, the company that developed the experimental drug.
The Trump administration has taken an increasingly firm line against medical research using fetal tissue from abortions. For example, when it moved in 2019 to curtail the ability of the National Institutes of Health to fund such research, supporters hailed a “major pro-life victory” and thanked Trump personally for taking decisive action against what they called the “outrageous and disgusting” practice of “experimentation using baby body parts.”
But when the president faced a deadly encounter with covid-19, his administration raised no objections over the fact that the new drugs also relied on fetal cells, and anti-abortion campaigners were silent too. Many types of medical and vaccine research employ supplies of cells originally acquired from abortion tissue. It would have taken an expert to realize that was the case with Trump’s treatment.
Last Friday, as Trump developed worrisome symptoms of covid-19, the president received an emergency cocktail of anti-coronavirus antibodies made by Regeneron. These molecules are manufactured in cells from a hamster’s ovary, so-called “CHO” cells, according to the company—not in human cells.
But cells originally derived from a fetus were used in another way. According to Regeneron, laboratory tests used to assess the potency of its antibodies employed a standardized supply of cells called HEK 293T, whose origin was kidney tissue from an abortion in the Netherlands in the 1970s.
Since then, the 293T cells have been “immortalized,” meaning they keep dividing in the lab, somewhat like a cancer, and have undergone other genetic changes and additions.
According to Regeneron, it and many other labs employ 293T cells to manufacture virus “pseudoparticles,” which are virus-like structures that contain the “spike” protein of the deadly coronavirus. It needs those to test how well different antibodies will neutralize the virus.
The two antibodies Regeneron eventually put forward as an experimental treatment, which may have saved Trump’s life, would have been selected using exactly such tests. Because the 293T cells were acquired so long ago, and have lived so long in the laboratory, they are no longer thought of as involving abortion politics.
Trump just got a dose of Regeneron’s unapproved antibody drug for covid At 74 and overweight, the president is at higher risk for serious illness.
“It’s how you want to parse it,” says Alexandra Bowie, a Regeneron spokesperson. “But the 293T cell lines available today are not considered fetal tissue, and we did not otherwise use fetal tissue.”
The Trump administration has sought to block or curtail research that requires tissue from recently performed abortions. In August, for example, a new board created by the Department of Health and Human Services, and stacked with figures opposed to abortion, voted to withhold funding from 13 of 14 proposals.
The rejections centered on research seeking fresh supplies of abortion tissue, rather than ongoing research involving older, well-established cell lines in use for many years, like the type Regeneron employed. However, one reason some scientists want to study abortion tissue is so they can create new and valuable cell lines.
“Chinese hamsters? Dang, don’t trust that. Why not use American hamsters?”
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Hey! We stole these hamsters from the Chicoms fair and square back in 1948!
http://biomanufacturing.org/uploads/files/547998065159985597-cho-history.pdf
Not it wasn’t
It is a lie.
There i absolutely no evidence that this is/was true and is denied by the pharmaceutical co.
And anyway, so what! As pro lifers are we required to determine the research source of any and all products we use/consume.
Has your curiosity been satisfied???? I cannot wait for your next curiosity posting...
Is this like the first instance of America stealing Chinese technology?
Sorry, I was working, just now able to take a break. I guess so. I will say that the story got picked up by the New York Times, whatever you think of that. My personal feeling is you have to be all the way in, or all the way out, on the use of fetuses or embryos in medicine.
The shit storm is creeping to a Cat 4.
Why post this fake news cr@p, here?
“Is this like the first instance of America stealing Chinese technology?”
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I think that prior to craftily stealing Mao Zedong’s hamsters we had a clever sneak thief steal General Tso’s chicken from right under his nose.
...hit piece meant to turn his supporters against him.
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And to cause pro-lifers to reject the Regeneron treatment.
Progs like twofers.
Did Trump know this was one of the “ingredients” and who really knew about this? I didn’t.
For what it's worth, Regeneron's corporate statement is, "All of Regeneron's research conducted on stem cells adheres to federal and state laws and regulations. Regeneron demands from its collaborators and vendors that all human stem cell lines used in its research are from properly consented individuals".
FAKE
The AZ Rag’s E.J. Montini is having a field day with this
https://www.azcentral.com/story/opinion/2020/10/09/aorted-fetal-tissue-drug-saved-donald-trump-covid/5934123002/
excerpt: OPINION
Drug derived from aborted fetal tissue was ‘miracles…from God’ that saved Trump from COVID
Opinion: If the president, or anyone, is against research using fetal tissue should they refuse drugs developed from it?
EJ Montini
Arizona Republic
President Donald Trump removes his mask as he stands on the Blue Room Balcony upon returning to the White House Monday, Oct. 5, 2020, in Washington, after leaving Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, in Bethesda, Md. Trump announced he tested positive for COVID-19 on Oct. 2. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Has anyone checked on Cathi Herrod?
News about the drugs used in Donald Trump’s treatment for COVID-19 most certainly would be giving her the vapors.
Herrod is the powerhouse leader of the Center for Arizona Policy, a heavyweight operation at the State Capitol that has been helping to elect politicians with an anti-abortion agenda for decades.
When Trump tested positive for COVID-19 and was sent to the hospital he was given several experimental drugs, which helped, and which the president described as “miracles coming down from God.”
It turns out, however, that the antibody treatment created by the company Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, was developed with the use of a cell line originally derived from abortion tissue.
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