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Cells from human foetuses are important for developing vaccines – but they’re not an ingredient
March 27, 2021 12.58am AEDT
The US Conference of Catholic Bishops recently issued a statement advising Catholics to opt for the Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines over the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, if possible, because human embryonic cells collected from an aborted foetus were used to develop the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Using human embryonic cells from aborted foetuses in vaccine development has been controversial for some faiths. Given the severity of the pandemic and the necessity that a significant percentage of the population must be vaccinated to protect public health, most faith communities have publicly stated it is morally acceptable to receive any of the authorised vaccinations, even those that used cells that have been replicated from those originally taken from aborted foetuses in their development. These replicated cells are known as cell lines.
Human embryonic cells have been used to develop safe and effective vaccines since the 1960s and have played varying roles in the rapid development of six of the eight authorised COVID-19 vaccines.
How it works
Modern vaccination has come a long way since 1796 when Edward Jenner infected his first “patient” with cowpox to prevent smallpox. One modern vaccination strategy is to hack viruses to deliver immunity. The adenovirus, a virus that can cause the common cold and other respiratory illness, has been re-engineered to create vaccines, including the Johnson & Johnson, Oxford/AstraZeneca, CanSino and Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccines.
The adenovirus is stripped of its original instructions, or genes, that trigger disease, and replaced with blueprints for a small part of the coronavirus – the spike protein. The body’s immune system recognises the spike protein as foreign and makes antibodies that then protect against future coronavirus infection.
Viruses are not alive and need to infect cells to propagate. To make enough re-engineered adenovirus for vaccines, cells that closely resemble the target of vaccination (humans) are needed. This is one reason scientists use human cells to create adenovirus-based vaccines. The adenovirus used in these vaccines also tends to infect human cells better than other animal cell types, making it easier to create more copies of the virus in human cells. For this, embryonic cell lines are sometimes used.
Two embryonic cell lines have been used to develop COVID-19 vaccines: human embryonic kidney cells called HEK 293 and human embryonic retinal cells called PER.C6. The PER.C6 cell line is from an elective abortion in the Netherlands in 1985, and the HEK 293 cell line comes from an undisclosed source (either spontaneous miscarriage or elective abortion) in the Netherlands in about 1972.
Johnson & Johnson used PER.C6 cells in their COVID-19 vaccine development, and the Oxford/AstraZeneca vaccine used HEK 293 cells. CanSino Biologics and Gamaleya Research Institute’s Sputnik V vaccines have also used HEK 293 cells.
Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech used HEK 293 cells in their proof-of-concept tests to see effectively take up the genetic instructions contained in these vaccines and produce the required spike protein. But human embryonic cell lines were not used to make either company’s final vaccine.
HEK 293 and PER.C6 cell lines have been genetically altered to include the part of the adenovirus instructions that trigger replication of adenoviruses. This allows the production of a large amount of the final vaccination product and allows the removal of the adenoviral replication instructions in the vaccine.
This prevents further replication of the adenovirus in the patient. So the delivered dose of adenovirus infects a relatively controlled number of host cells, which create a limited amount of coronavirus spike protein, enough for the body to mount an immune response.
After a large enough dose of coronavirus spike-containing adenoviruses is collected, the adenovirus is purified and isolated from the embryonic cell material for inclusion in the vaccine. No embryonic cells are included in the actual vaccine.
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Are the vaccines made with fetal cells?
mRNA Vaccines (Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna)
No, the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines do not contain any aborted fetal cells. Fetal cell lines are not the same as fetal tissue. Fetal cell lines are cells that grow in a laboratory. They descend from cells taken from elective abortions in the 1970s and 1980s. Those individual cells from the 1970s and 1980s have since multiplied into many new cells over the past four or five decades, creating fetal cell lines. Current fetal cell lines are thousands of generations removed from the original fetal tissue.
For the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, no fetal cell lines were used to produce or manufacture the vaccine, and they are not inside the injection you receive from your doctor/nurse. Fetal cells may have been used to test efficacy and/or proof of concept (see sources below).
Johnson & Johnson
The Johnson and Johnson vaccine did use fetal cell cultures, specifically PER.C6 (a retinal cell line that was isolated from a terminated fetus in 1985), in order to produce and manufacture the vaccine.
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COVID-19 vaccines and aborted fetuses
Posted on by FactCheckNI 
UPDATE: This article was updated on 27 July 2021, in response to a query about whether an mRNA vaccine by CureVac uses fetal cell lines in any stage of its development. It does not. This article was previously updated on 2 February 2021 to explain about the use of MRC-5 and HEK 293 cell lines in the design and testing of some vaccines.
By December 2020, there were 78 COVID-19 vaccines in development. Thirteen were in third stage trials, and seven already had limited approval for use. The Pfizer/BioNtech vaccine was the first to be approved for use in the UK on 2 December 2020.
Concerns have been expressed on social media that COVID-19 vaccines are made from aborted fetuses, and some people object to the vaccines on religious and ethical grounds.
Most of the COVID-19 vaccines in development do not use human cell lines in their production. For example, Pfizer and Moderna use mRNA technology.
An mRNA vaccine is a new type of synthetic vaccine. As Pfizer explains, mRNA vaccines are made from a DNA template in a lab, rather than the traditional method of being made in cells. The vaccine is then synthetically produced.
The Moderna vaccine is also synthetic. Moderna began by designing a gene sequence on a computer. Damian Garde explains how Chinese scientists, after isolating the virus from patients, posted the genetic sequence for COVID-19 online. Moderna and BioNtech used software to tell them “what chemicals to put together and in what order”.
The COVID-19 vaccine being developed by AstraZeneca in collaboration with Oxford University has generated the most debate.
In November 2020, it was widely claimed on social media, including this Facebook post with over 160,000 views, that the AstraZeneca vaccine contains MRC-5 cells from lung tissue of a male fetus which was aborted in the 1960s.
This specific claim has been fact checked by Associated Press, Full Fact, Politifact, Reuters and Snopes and found to be false. However, the MRC-5 cell line was used in the preclinical testing of the AstraZeneca vaccine.
AstraZeneca did use the HEK 293 cell line to manufacture its vaccine (and Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna in the design of their vaccines). These cells originate from a fetus which was aborted in the Netherlands in 1973. The fetus was aborted legally at the time for other reasons, and not for the purposes of vaccine research. Alex Kasprak at Snopes has summarised the cell line’s origin story, which began with a Canadian scientist’s research into cancer.
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It is also important to understand how cells are used. It is common for vaccines to be grown in labs using cultures. Writing in Science, Meredith Wadman describes cell cultures as “miniature ‘factories’” in which the virus is propagated. After the viruses are grown, they are purified and cell culture material is removed. As Professor Helen Petousis Harris explains to AAP FactCheck, no cells of any kind are part of the final vaccine formulation.
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Religiously conservative think tanks such as the Lozier Institute have expressed their opinion that lab sequenced mRNA vaccines, and specifically the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, do not pose an ethical problem for them, as they are synthetically produced.
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Summary
- No COVID-19 vaccine contains cells from aborted fetuses.
- A replica cell line from a fetus aborted in 1973 was used to develop the AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine. However, the vaccine itself does not contain fetal cells.
- New mRNA vaccines, such as those being developed by Pfizer and Moderna, are synthetic vaccines, sequenced on a computer in a lab, and do not use fetal cell lines in their production.
This article was originally published on 7 December 2020.
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You asked, we answered: Do the COVID-19 vaccines contain aborted fetal cells?
Published August 18, 2021
This article was originally published December 28, 2020. It was updated on March 2, 2021, to include information about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, and on August 18, 2021, to include a personal note from Dr. Lawler and further clarify some parts of the article that were causing confusion.
Question
Do the COVID-19 vaccines contain aborted fetal cells?
Answer from infectious disease expert and practicing Catholic James Lawler, MD
No, the COVID-19 vaccines do not contain any aborted fetal cells. However, fetal cell lines – cells grown in a laboratory based on aborted fetal cells collected generations ago – were used in testing during research and development of the mRNA vaccines, and during production of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
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Now, let’s break down the science
Fetal cell lines are cells that grow in a laboratory. They descend from cells taken from abortions in the 1970s and 1980s.
Those individual cells from the 1970s and 1980s have since multiplied into many new cells over the past four or five decades, creating the fetal cell lines I mentioned above. Current fetal cell lines are thousands of generations removed from the original fetal tissue. They do not contain any tissue from a fetus.
Vaccine makers may use these fetal cell lines during the following two phases:
- Research and development
- Production and manufacturing
When it comes to the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines, fetal cell line HEK 293 was used during the research and development phase. All HEK 293 cells are descended from tissue taken from a 1973 abortion that took place in the Netherlands. Using fetal cell lines to test the effectiveness and safety of medications is common practice, because they provide a consistent and well-documented standard.
For the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, fetal cell lines were used in the production and manufacturing stage. To make the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, scientists infect PER.C6 fetal cell lines to grow the adenovirus vector. (Learn more about how viral vector vaccines work.) All PER.C6 cells used to manufacture the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are descended from tissue taken from a 1985 abortion that took place in the Netherlands. This cell line is used because it is a well-studied industry standard for safe and reliable production of viral vector vaccines.
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weehingthong 
Pingback: Project Veritas and Pfizer whistleblower Melissa Strickler, who claims that Pfizer is hiding the fact that human fetal tissue has been used in vaccine test development | weehingthong
1. You started with:
Lies, all lies. They ADMITTED they use them.
2. And later, you wrote:
The pharmaceutical companies.
3. I seek clarification: “They ADMITTED they use them.”
(a) What are the “them”? My post says “Do mRNA vaccines have human foetal cells in them? No, not Pfizer or Moderna or Johnson & Johnson.”
And in my post, one article said:
“No, the mRNA COVID-19 vaccines do not contain any aborted fetal cells. Fetal cell lines are not the same as fetal tissue. Fetal cell lines are cells that grow in a laboratory. They descend from cells taken from elective abortions in the 1970s and 1980s. Those individual cells from the 1970s and 1980s have since multiplied into many new cells over the past four or five decades, creating fetal cell lines. Current fetal cell lines are thousands of generations removed from the original fetal tissue.
(b) The Science article you quoted said:
“At least five of the candidate COVID-19 vaccines use one of two human fetal cell lines”. Does “at least five” mean “the pharmaceutical companies” (meaning ALL OF THEM)?
(c) Human fetal cell lines:
“For the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, no fetal cell lines were used to produce or manufacture the vaccine, and they are not inside the injection you receive from your doctor/nurse. Fetal cells may have been used to test efficacy and/or proof of concept (see sources below).”
4. Now, let’s break down the science
Fetal cell lines are cells that grow in a laboratory. They descend from cells taken from abortions in the 1970s and 1980s.
Those individual cells from the 1970s and 1980s have since multiplied into many new cells over the past four or five decades, creating the fetal cell lines I mentioned above. Current fetal cell lines are thousands of generations removed from the original fetal tissue. They do not contain any tissue from a fetus.
Thank you for confirming what I said. ALL of them, as in the ones that are available in the USA, and in some used overseas.
I love how you try to justify their use by saying they are old cell lines, and the fact that they are replicated in a lab makes it any less ethical? Were the women who chose to have an abortion told that their child’s cell line would be used in the production of vaccines? I highly doubt it. So cell lines are ok, but cell tissue isn’t, according to you? They are cell lines GROWN in tissue. Human diploid lung fibroblasts cell lines are DERIVED from LUNG TISSUE. HEK293 is a cell line derived from human embryonic kidney cells grown in tissue culture. The PER.C6 cell line is derived from human embryonic retinal cells, originally from the retinal tissue of an 18 week old fetus aborted in 1985, a proprietary cell line owned by Janssen, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson. And then, let’s also ponder the ramifications how repeated replication can produce a suboptimal cell line. No mater how many times they’ve been replicated, it doesn’t diminish their quality? You can try to justify it ethically, but you can’t.
“In four of the vaccines, the human fetal cells are used as miniature “factories” to generate vast quantities of adenoviruses, disabled so that they cannot replicate, that are used as vehicles to ferry genes from the novel coronavirus that causes COVID-19. When the adenoviruses are given as a vaccine, recipients’ cells begin to produce proteins from the coronavirus, hopefully triggering a protective immune response.”
“Hopefully” So basically it’s a crap shoot. Man, that’s some “settled science” for ya eh? Add “hopefully” to the list, of “may”, can possibly”, and “might”. Seems pretty uncertain for “settled science”.
And, are you also trying to say that these cell lines do not contain DNA? How do you justify putting male cell lines in females, and vice versa? How do justify putting another persons DNA, into millions of human beings across the planet? Were these cell lines family histories of disease or mental illness included when these cell lines were derived? Do you not see how a problem could arise from that?
So YES, Pfizer or Moderna or Johnson & Johnson ALL use human cell lines in the production of their “vaccines”, also otherwise known as gene therapy treatment. Scientism has become a cult, and you’re part of the problem. No ethics, no morals, but tons of excuses.
If they aren’t in the end product as you claim, then why are they included in the CDC vaccine ingredient excipient list? It doesn’t just claim they are used in the process of making them, they claim they are in the product itself. But never mind that right? All in the name of “$cience”, and the “Greater Good” right? And that’s not even bringing into account the many other questionable ingredients used, and the push for a “one size fits all” approach. And you might not want to try to use “fact checkers” that have conflicts of interest, to try to prove a point.
I have no points to prove. My post states what the articles say.
You sure have a very aggressive aspect to you. An aspect that gets too personal, even accusatory.
Well, write your own blog. Those who
can, blog. Those who can’t, rant.
And there are those who try to defend liability free, several times convicted, felons. So here we are. You are providing bogus, bias articles, rather than the actual science. Where are your actual scientific papers? You are using your blog to promote, and endorse convicted felons, unethical practices, and back them us by using “fact checkers” that have conflicts of interest.
Aggressive? No, passionate, yes. Accusatory, and personal, most definitely. This is personal. When governments are mandating and forcing medical procedures, it’s very personal. I tend to be that way towards people who defend the undefendable, and source their info from unreliable/bias outlets, that only argue one side of the story.
Do you actually think that Pfizer would put out an email, with false information, to their own employees? Do you really think a person would risk everything, their career and lives, to blow the whistle, just for fun? Do morals and ethics offend you personally, so much so that you felt the need to “blog” about it? Curious to know if you make it a habit to defend convicted felons with no liability, or is this a new hobby? If you have no points to prove, than what’s the point of your post? I’d say, the point of your post is to try to debunk the whistleblower, correct? So maybe, contact her, the actual source for the information, and she can share with you the source of her claim. Unless you do, you aren’t debunking anything. Just blowing hot air, you know, ranting.
Rant away; it won’t make you feel better though. Anytime you want to.
I’ll leave the ranting to the main stream media, government, “debunkers” and “fact checkers”. They seem to be hell bent on discriminating, segregating people, and preventing informed consent.
So I guess that’s a no?
Have you reached out to Project Veritas? If I was trying to debunk something, I would personally reach out to the source of the story, but that’s just me.
Why don’t you reach out to all parties involved and write out the results in a post somewhere?
Lies, all lies. They ADMITTED they use them https://www.science.org/news/2020/06/abortion-opponents-protest-covid-19-vaccines-use-fetal-cells
Who admitted?
The pharmaceutical companies.
Give evidence. The articles in this post say the pharmaceutical companies do not.
I shared the article from Science, and it clearly states- ” At least five of the candidate COVID-19 vaccines use one of two human fetal cell lines: HEK-293, a kidney cell line widely used in research and industry that comes from a fetus aborted in about 1972; and PER.C6, a proprietary cell line owned by Janssen, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, developed from retinal cells from an 18-week-old fetus aborted in 1985. Both cell lines were developed in the lab of molecular biologist Alex van der Eb at Leiden University. Two of the five vaccines have entered human trials (see table, below).” And all the links are included in the article.
“A vaccine made by the Chinese company CanSino Biologics was the first COVID-19 vaccine to enter phase II human trials. It was developed using adapted HEK-293 cells that the company licensed from Canada’s NRC, where the cells were developed. (NRC-developed HEK-293 cells have already been used to develop an approved Ebola vaccine.) Last month, NRC announced a collaboration with CanSino Biologics under which it is preparing to run late-stage clinical trials of the vaccine in Canada, and scale up facilities to produce the vaccine in quantity.”
“One of the Warp Speed candidates, made by Janssen Research & Development, uses PER.C6 cells. The second, from University of Oxford researchers and AstraZeneca, uses HEK-293 cells. Both have received U.S. government commitments of, respectively, $456 million and $1.2 billion, if they meet milestones, through the Biomedical Advanced Research Development Authority (BARDA).
Another vaccine that relies on HEK-293, being developed by two companies owned by the billionaire scientist and businessman Patrick Soon-Shiong, made an earlier, Warp Speed long list of 14 promising candidates, according to a press release from one of companies, NantKwest.”
This isn’t new news, fetal cell lines have been used in making MANY vaccines, and other drugs, as the article clearly states. Unless Science is now considered “conspiracy theorists”. The CDC excipient list clearly lists WI-30, and MCR-5, which is used in many of the recommended vaccines.
Fetal cell lines are fantastic because they evolved from a sperm and and egg. Thus there are NO viruses/viral fragments/contaminants present. Using other animal cells and chicken eggs cannot guarantee that. For a researcher not using fetal cells, your tests and results are still iffy due to unknown substances. So, for quality control, I believe – I repeat, I believe – they still use fetal cells. If an orphanage makes use of money donated by a bank robber, how does karma play out here? I also believe that the vaccine development is highly compartmentalised. A researcher simply orders materials from a catalogue that contains part numbers. What those part numbers actually represent is hidden. The secrecy of the test results over the Prizer vaccine and how they muddy the study by throwing out certain results lead me to suspect a massive lack of integrity throughout the enterprise and indeed the industry. Case in point – Monsanto sold Roundup in Europe and in the old stock, they printed bio-degradable. In later stock they left this word out. Makes you wonder. I think this is now banned in Europe.