Flu vaccine cultivated in eggs
Did you know the flu vaccine is cultivated in eggs? Being that I’m just recovering from 2 weeks of a flu/virus kind of thing, my friend suggested getting a flu vaccine. I have had them in the past. When I worked at a hospital we were required to get them. Little did I know that the vaccine was causing unnecessary harm to poor little chickens!
Yep, it’s true. The flu vaccine is cultivated in chicken eggs. Not just any chicken eggs, 11-day-old fertilized chicken eggs. “Companies inject the eggs with flu strains. The eggs become tiny incubators, brewing viruses that are then killed and bottled in vials.”1 Does this bother anybody else or just me?
Now the flu vaccine companies don’t like making flu vaccines this way … not because of the cruelty caused to the chicken embryos but because it takes time … several days for the vaccine to be ready. They have a bright idea of moving on to something else called cell culture vaccines. “Instead of injecting viruses in eggs, scientists infect cells — drawn from insects, African green monkeys, dogs, or human fetal retinas — with flu strains or their components.”2 Then they cultivate them in big vats. This would stop shortages of the flu vaccine in peak seasons but … ahem … cause more cruelty to animals! Why can’t they think of a solution that doesn’t use animal cells?
After all this suffering is caused, there are no reports (that I could find) detailing the effectiveness of the vaccine. Even the Center for Disease Control says “The ability of flu vaccine to protect a person depends on the age and health status of the person getting the vaccine, and the similarity or “match” between the virus strains in the vaccine and those in circulation.”3 So even people who get the flu vaccine can still come down with the flu and (gasp) perhaps even die. Then the chicken’s suffering would have been for not.
Everybody knows that it’s not fun to be sick. The flu can cause vomiting, fever, lethargy, and body aches that linger for days or weeks. So what’s a vegan to do? Now I am not a doctor nor am I giving medical advice but here’s what I decided. I’m a healthy 31 year old woman and the likelihood that I’ll survive even the worst flu is high. So I opt not to get a flu vaccine and suffer a few days or weeks of inconvenience during the winter if I get sick.
Elderly folks, pregnant women, or young kids are at higher risk of becoming gravely ill or worse, death, from the flu. But lets be rational, the flu kills 36,000 people in the US every year. It causes 200,000 people to be hospitalized. In the United States, there are 34,000 gun-related deaths each year. Even more people, 42,636, are killed in car accidents in the United States ever year.
If you like to play the odds as I do, you are more likely of dying in a car accident than you are of dying from the flu. Does that mean you’ll stop driving? Probably not. Does that mean you may consider not being vaccinated for the flu? That’s up to you. I’m just giving you vegan food for thought 🙂
1. Michael S. Rosenwald, Washington Post, 11/27/2004, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15336-2004Nov26.html
2. Michael S. Rosenwald, Washington Post, 11/27/2004, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A15336-2004Nov26.html
3. CDC – Influenza, 12/10/08, http://www.cdc.gov/FLU/protect/keyfacts.htm