Smallpox vaccine uses fetal cell line

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Misty

Sunday, November 18, 2001 2:54 AM

Smallpox vaccine uses fetal cell line

 

 

BIOLOGICAL WAR-FEAR

Smallpox vaccine uses fetal cell line

Some Americans may refuse shot, worsening potential outbreak

http://wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=25362

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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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Jon E. Dougherty is a staff reporter and columnist for WorldNetDaily, and

author of the special report, " Election 2000: How the Military Vote Was

Suppressed. "

[Guest guest]

In a message dated 11/21/01 10:54:40 PM Pacific Standard Time,

Elaine121 writes:

 

> concerns that the use

> of such tissues could lead many people to refuse the shots, thereby

> worsening any outbreak.

 

The shots will cause an outbreak. The more people who get the shots, the

more will die of the disease and other side effects. Vaccination is a sales

gimmic.

 

Starris

[Guest guest]

--- Starrisg wrote:

> The shots will cause an outbreak. The more people

> who get the shots, the

> more will die of the disease and other side effects.

> Vaccination is a sales

> gimmic.

>

Yes, Starris, the vaccination caused more deaths

than it prevented. The vaccine is credited with the

eradication of the disease, but in truth less than 10%

of the world population was ever

vaccinated...certainly NOT enough to confer " herd

immunity " . What is being said about smallpox being

highly contagious and really deadly is

unsubstantiated. There has never been one study able

to prove that smallpox is contagious or that

vaccination prevents one from contracting it.

 

Pam

 

 

 

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[Guest guest]

Just interested; how do you know that?

 

ken

>

>The shots will cause an outbreak. The more people who get

the shots, the

>more will die of the disease and other side effects.

Vaccination is a sales

>gimmic.