In my younger years, I invested heavily in biotechs; particularly adult stem cell companies for moral reasons. As a vegetarian imagine my horror when I learned that the bioreactors were using mice feeder cells; Luckily the companies were moving away from that.
Today I heard a claim that the vaccines were vegan, and seen that theme repeated over and over on googling that issue. Normally when you think vaccine, maybe you'll think there is a chicken egg, a rabbit, or maybe a dead baby that was used in it even to this day. So I did a lot of research, and found out that I was right. But wait, didn't the header say I was wrong. It is more being right and wrong. Across the world traditional vaccines, especially in India, are using fetal bovine feeder cells and human embryonic stem cells, other countries are using monkey Kidney cells (or vero cells).And the claim pretty much is that the virus kills the host cells, the virus then dies, and the dead/inactive virus is then purified; Walla no animal products/biproducts in the vaccine itself, so it reeked of a massive deception campaign by google. None of the sites really spoke about the growth serum. Knowing that there was an animal based serum, I got interested if there was a residual of host dna to demonstrate they were still overtly lying despite the deception, and indeed there is residual hosts dna [at least in laboratories]. But the literature was mostly for the Indian based firms, which include the vaccine producer for AstraZeneca. The search results trying to tie mRNA to vero cells, or other types, with moderna was coming up empty. So pretty much it became a task of researching how mRNA is made and proliferated in a lab setting, which isn't an easy find either. Read a few articles trying to process them about transfecting other cells. Eventually I found the answer. https://jitc.bmj.com/content/9/6/e002932
While I can't speak specifically on the exact technology that Pfizer and Modern uses, or their suppliers to the finest details, mRNA proliferation in a lab setting is performed through enzymes or bacteria growth [and a lot of machines to automate stuff]. Does it mean all the other chemicals used in the process is vegan; I am not able to answer that so i will assume that at face value it really is vegan. A true vegan could prod the supply chain more directly if they desire, while I go lick my wounds. If mRNA vaccines are vegan, then it should that the mRNA based covid19 based vaccines are too.
If there is some saving grace for me, the original claim was in a PSA made by the NHS over in England. The NHS still permits astrazeneca, and so their vaccines aren't vegan per reason of dead babies. As far as J&J, I am not sure what they use.
So I just wasted a whole day. At least I didn't hit the send button 4 hours ago, and discovery that I had to eat crow.
Will this revelation cause me to take the vaccine? Hell no.
But it is a good reminder that before posting anything accusatory, to make sure the evidence is specifically tailored to your target and not just in a more general sense. Next up, 100% circumstantial evidence that Covid19 was manmade by the CCP at the wuhan institute of Virology. j/k.
Really, if I wrongly asserted that mRNA vaccines are not [at present] vegan, someone in the know might have just pointed me in the right direction to discover the truth and that is how the freedom of speech is supposed to work. Sometimes, the reality is a topic may be too expansive for a single person to fully research. And so subject to the limitations of libel, the best course of action is to speak up.