Posted on 11/18/2001 3:17:00 AM PST by JohnHuang2
BIOLOGICAL WAR-FEAR
Smallpox vaccine uses
fetal cell line
Some Americans may refuse shot, worsening potential outbreak
By Jon Dougherty
© 2001 WorldNetDaily.com
A company that would use a stem-cell line from an aborted fetus to manufacture a new smallpox vaccine is one of only a few firms being considered for a major new government contract despite concerns that the use of such tissues could lead many people to refuse the shots, thereby worsening any outbreak.
The company, Acambis PLC of England, in partnership with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, has already been contracted by the federal government to make 40 million doses of the vaccine.
According to the Washington Post, that contract signed last year is set to increase to 54 million doses. But, as a part of a plan being formulated by the Department of Health and Human Services, the number could rise by as much as 250 million doses under new requirements to manufacture enough vaccine for every man, woman and child in the country.
Three other companies besides Acambis are being considered for the new vaccine contract, the Post reported.
The department announced earlier this month that the agency is soliciting bids for the manufacture of a new smallpox vaccine. The current stockpile, at just 15 million doses, is far from adequate should terrorists release new strains of the disease in public, HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson said.
Officials have voiced new concerns over intentional smallpox outbreaks in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks and the outbreak of anthrax at various locations along the East Coast.
Meanwhile, health officials with the Food and Drug Administration say the method of manufacturing the old vaccine, called Dryvax, which was made by Wyeth using calf skin, is "no longer considered optimal." Instead, the agency says the new smallpox vaccine "will be prepared in MRC-5 cells" a line of aborted fetal cells dating back to 1966 because that method is more efficient.
"The MRC-5 line was developed from lung tissue taken from a 14-week fetus aborted for psychiatric reasons from a 27-year-old physically healthy woman," said a description of the cell tissue by the Coriell Institute for Medical Research at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, where the line is maintained. The institute further describes it as "normal human fetal lung fibroblast."
The new manufacturing method has concerned some pro-life groups, who argue that the use of aborted fetal tissue could cause pro-life supporters to refuse it, making any outbreak worse in terms of duration and mortality.
"If enough people refuse the vaccine, we may be faced with serious epidemic problems," said Debi Vinnege, executive director of Children of God For Life, an organization that monitors the use of aborted fetal tissue in the manufacture of vaccines.
"There is no reason to endanger the lives of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Americans when perfectly acceptable alternative methods may be used to cultivate the smallpox vaccine," she told WorldNetDaily.
Lenore Gelb, a spokeswoman for the FDA, said the use of the stem-cell line for vaccine production was not new, adding that it was not up to her agency to decide who should and should not receive the vaccine.
"The FDA doesn't have that role," she said.
Asked if she was concerned about a prolonged outbreak due to the refusal by some to take the vaccine, she said, "FDA approves a vaccine based on the 'safety and effective' [criteria]." She said "recommendations for who should get a vaccine" were up to the CDC.
Smallpox 'easily transmitted'
Vaccinations to prevent smallpox have not been required in the United States since 1972, says HHS, because it was largely eliminated as a threat in the United States.
Caused by a virus known as Variola major, smallpox "is considered one of the most dangerous potential biological weapons because it is easily transmitted from person to person and because few people carry full immunity to the virus," according to department documentation.
Although a worldwide immunization program eradicated the smallpox disease in 1977, small quantities of the smallpox virus still exist in two secure facilities in the United States and Russia, the government said.
"However, it is possible that unrecognized stores of smallpox virus exist elsewhere in the world," said an HHS assessment.
"Smallpox vaccine has proven to be highly effective in preventing infection. In unvaccinated people exposed to smallpox, the vaccine can lessen the severity of, or even prevent, illness if given within four days after exposure," said Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health, a division of the HHS, in testimony to the Senate Appropriations Committee Nov. 2.
Nevertheless, there is obvious concern among experts that terrorist entities as they have with anthrax could eventually reintroduce smallpox into U.S. society. If that happens, some public health experts say extreme measures would be needed to combat the threat.
One such plan is already in the works. Last month, all 50 state governors were sent a copy of a proposal that, if passed into law, would grant each of them new authority to act in the event of a health emergency like a smallpox outbreak.
According to the report, the measure would allow governors upon the declaration of a health emergency to invoke the authority to order roads and airports closed, to quarantine entire cities, and to move people to holding facilities like sports stadiums, if need be, to protect the rest of the public from becoming infected.
"In tough times, you have to make tough decisions," Paul Jacobsen, assistant commissioner for the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, told the Boston Herald Monday.
One of those "extreme measures" could be compulsory vaccination, some worry. Under the proposal, even those who philosophically disagree with the ingredients of the vaccine may, under extreme measures, be vaccinated against their will for the good of an entire community.
Nevertheless, April Bell, a spokeswoman for the CDC, told WorldNetDaily that the United States does not currently have a mandatory vaccination requirement. Also, she said that in the event of widespread infection, universal vaccination may not even be necessary.
Under the epidemiological concept of "herd immunity," Bell said, "you would vaccinate around the case. If some people refused to be vaccinated, you vaccinate those they were in contact with," thereby isolating the spread of the disease.
"That's how smallpox was eradicated in the first place," she said, adding that smallpox carries a relatively low 30 percent mortality rate.
Bell said the CDC had no position on the state emergency health powers legislation. However, according to Lawrence O. Gostin, director of the Center for Law and the Public's Health at Johns Hopkins and Georgetown Universities, the author of the measure, the "act ensures a strong, effective and timely response to public health emergencies without unduly interfering" with civil rights and liberties.
"Emergency health threats, including those caused by bioterrorism and epidemics, require the exercise of extraordinary government functions," he wrote in a preamble introduction to his 40-page "model" bill.
The bill was drafted in collaboration with the National Governor's Association, National Conference of State Legislatures, National Association of Attorneys General and the National Association of City and County Health Officers.
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Stay well - stay safe - Stay armed - Yorktown
Don't forget polio and rabies as well.
Actually, there are alternatives for Rubella and Hepatitis A. The Japanese derive a vaccine for the former from rabbit kidneys and for the latter from monkey kidneys. Neither is approved in the US. AFAIK, there is no non-fetal cell source for chickenpox vaccine.
Smallpox vaccine is actually made from the vaccinia virus, not the variola virus. Vaccinia was cultured originally on the Vero line of kidney cells from an adult African green monkey.
Tres drole.
You roll in mouthing off nazi eugenics platitudes, and then, when I call you on it, you accuse me of "name-calling"?
Well, you're consistent, if nothing else.
It never worked. Only about 10% of the worldwide population ever had the smallpox vaccine. Erradication? Bullcrap. It went away by itself and the vaccine had nothing to do with it whatsoever.
No problem-- don't take the shot if you don't want to. For myself and my children, we'll take it, thank you very much.
And to those who doubt the use of aborted fetal tissue for the vaccines mentioned, here's the package insert for the chickenpox vaccine.
Hey, there's some baby cow serum in there as well... and guinea pig stuff in there too, how apropos.
VARIVAX® [Varicella Virus Vaccine Live (Oka/Merck)] Contents Description Clinical Pharmacology Indications and Usage Contraindications Warnings Precautions Adverse Reactions Dosage and Administration How Supplied References DESCRIPTION VARIVAX* [Varicella Virus Vaccine Live (Oka/Merck)] is a preparation of the Oka/Merck strain of live, attenuated varicella virus. The virus was initially obtained from a child with natural varicella, then introduced into human embryonic lung cell cultures, adapted to and propagated in embryonic guinea pig cell cultures and finally propagated in human diploid cell cultures (WI-38). Further passage of the virus for varicella vaccine was performed at Merck Research Laboratories (MRL) in human diploid cell cultures (MRC-5) that were free of adventitious agents. This live, attenuated varicella vaccine is a lyophilized preparation containing sucrose, phosphate, glutamate, and processed gelatin as stabilizers. VARIVAX, when reconstituted as directed, is a sterile preparation for subcutaneous administration. Each 0.5 mL dose contains the following: a minimum of 1350 PFU (plaque forming units) of Oka/Merck varicella virus when reconstituted and stored at room temperature for 30 minutes, approximately 25 mg of sucrose, 12.5 mg hydrolyzed gelatin, 3.2 mg sodium chloride, 0.5 mg monosodium L-glutamate, 0.45 mg of sodium phosphate dibasic, 0.08 mg of potassium phosphate monobasic, 0.08 mg of potassium chloride; residual components of MRC-5 cells including DNA and protein; and trace quantities of sodium phosphate monobasic, EDTA, neomycin, and fetal bovine serum. The product contains no preservative. To maintain potency, the lyophilized vaccine must be kept frozen at an average temperature of - 15°C(+5°F) or colder and must be used before the expiration date (see HOW SUPPLIED, Stability and Storage). Storage in any freezer (e.g., chest, frost-free) that reliably maintains an average temperature of -15°C (+5°F) or colder and has a separate sealed freezer door is acceptable.
">In the U.S. today the following vaccines are fetal derived with no other source available...
I didn't know that. This is kind of terrifying."
The information has been publicly available for a long time; the chickenpox one in particular goes back to the 1960s. People are now going to decide to get indignant about something they could have known about all along, if they had cared to find out.
Yes, your vaccine was derived the same way. Many women aborted in the 1960s during the German measles epidemic, on their doctors' advice.
http://www.lc.org/radiotv/nlj/nlj0901.htm
Exactly. Why get all upset about it when the likelihood is that you've already DONE it?
I just noticed the age of the posts here. Sorry - how did this get bumped up onto the current list? :(
Would it be 'eugenics' if we seperated people by their idealogical beliefs?
I've yet to see anybody turn down treatment for a loved one because of how the treatment may have been derrived.
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