~Speaking of Seth~

The vaccine being developed at Oxford University uses a "harmless" virus taken from a chimpanzee to ferry genetic material from the coronavirus into human cells:

"The ChAdOx1 vaccine is a chimpanzee adenovirus vaccine vector. This is a harmless, weakened adenovirus that usually causes the common cold in chimpanzees. ChAdOx1 was chosen as the most suitable vaccine technology for a SARS-CoV-2 vaccine as it has been shown to generate a strong immune response from one dose in other vaccines. It has been genetically changed so that it is impossible for it to grow in humans. This also makes it safer to give to children, the elderly and anyone with a pre-existing condition such as diabetes. Chimpanzee adenoviral vectors are a very well-studied vaccine type, having been used safely in thousands of subjects."

https://www.research.ox.ac.uk/Article/2020-07-19-the-oxford-covid-19-vaccine

The biotech company Novavax is using insect cells to grow pieces of the coronavirus spike protein:

"Novavax, which focuses on developing next-generation vaccines for serious infectious diseases, plans to insert the full-length spike gene into a baculovirus, a virus that infects insect cells. When that virus infects lab-grown insect cells, it produces coronavirus spike protein that's folded and sugar-coated as if human cells had produced it, Glenn says."

https://www.nature.com/articles/d42473-020-00032-z

I have nothing against chimpanzees or insects, but I am not sure whether I want substances from their bodies injected into my body.

The pangolin was blamed for the origin of Covid 19:

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-00364-2

Quote from: Sena
I have nothing against chimpanzees or insects, but I am not sure whether I want substances from their bodies injected into my body.

Boy I'm with you! Also, virus vaccines have always been grown in some sort of living tissue, as viruses need a live host. I remember when I was a kid I'd heard they were using chicken eggs for that purpose, and then a few years ago heard they were using dog kidneys for flu shots. Now I don't even want to think about how that whole process goes, being an animal lover in general. And while I do eat meat, I don't want any injected into my bloodstream. Like they say, what could possibly go wrong?

It would be nice if they could find a way to manufacture vaccines without having to farm animals to harvest living tissue. I've never felt OK with using animals for experimentation either, but we haven't come up with an alternative.

A question just came to mine: Do vegans and vegetarians get vaccinations? If so, I wonder if they know what's in them?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cell-based_vaccine

I'd like to know (maybe not) what other "mammalian cells" are used to manufacture vaccines.