by Brian Shilhavy
Editor, Health Impact News
Last month (January, 2022) we published an article about the yet-to-be-approved by the FDA COVID-19 vaccine from Novavax, a company that in 2020 received $1.6 BILLION from Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed, which created instant billionaires even though the company to date has yet to produce a single product licensed for use in the U.S.
Right Wing publications such as Gateway Pundit promoted the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine as a “Pro-Life” vaccine for Christians, and the Pro-Life Christian publication Lifesite News interviewed Dr. Peter McCullough who has also endorsed the vaccine. See:
Novavax: Soon to be FDA-Authorized COVID-19 Vaccine for the “Christian Pro-life” Population?
Even the corporate media has jumped on the Novavax vaccine bandwagon, as the Washington Post has stated that this is the vaccine that can win over “religious vaccine skeptics.”
Could Novavax win over some religious vaccine skeptics?
However, Sarah Quale, writing for the PersonHood Alliance, has now reported that evidence from a private letter and Novavax’s own published study shows that the HEK293 aborted fetal cell line was used in the testing phase.
Despite Novavax’s public statements that its COVID-19 vaccine does not have any connection to abortion-derived cell lines, evidence from a private letter and Novavax’s own published study shows that the HEK293 aborted fetal cell line was used in the testing phase.
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After filing a request for emergency use authorization of its COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S. in January, Novavax, Inc., reports its protein-based vaccine does not have any connection to abortion-derived cell lines. In a recent Christianity Today article, which erroneously claimed the vaccine is “the first without links to aborted fetal cell lines,” a Novavax spokesperson was quoted as saying:
“No human fetal-derived cell lines or tissue, including HEK293 cells, are used in the development, manufacture, or production of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373.”
Though this statement is accurate, it is at the same time, deceptive. Novavax used an ethical cell line obtained from moth cells in the production and manufacture of its vaccine. However, the HEK293 cell line was used in the testing phase, as revealed in a scientific paper published by Novavax itself. The HEK293 cell line was originally harvested from the kidney of an aborted baby girl in 1973.
Novavax’s doublespeak
In the scientific paper, a third-party research group contracted by Novavax compared an HEK293-produced protein to Novavax’s insect-produced protein. Researchers found that Novavax’s insect-produced protein had a similar structural integrity to the HEK293-produced protein.
When presented with this evidence, the Novavax spokesperson provided another careful answer—that Novavax “did not use HEK293 cells in the testing of NVX-CoV2373.”
However, in a letter obtained by the Charlotte Lozier Institute from a medical colleague who requested information from Novavax (shown below), Novavax admits that HEK293 cells were indeed used as part of the testing phase for NVX-CoV2373:
“Testing was conducted to compare the structural integrity of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein produced in the Sf9 insect cells versus the spike protein produced in the mammalian human embryonic kidney HEK 293F cells. The comparison determined the Sf9 cell technology produced spike proteins were comparable in structural integrity as the spike proteins produced in the HEK 293F cell.”
In this same letter, Novavax also stated that “fetal-derived cell lines were not used in the manufacture, testing, or production of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine.”
Enough with the double-speak.
Novavax’s public and private statements are confusing. Even if no live HEK293 cells were used in the test (and the study focused only on a structural comparison of the two proteins, using what is generally known about the HEK293 protein), Novavax still relied on knowledge obtained by harvesting the kidney cells of a pre-born baby girl who was intentionally killed.
If Novavax is interested in providing a COVID-19 vaccine “to a lot of people who have been hesitant to get other vaccines,” as its CEO Stanley Erck has said, then why not just speak plainly to the public? For many people, COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy stems from the vaccines’ connection to abortion.
And there is a connection to abortion present in Novavax’s vaccine—one that is completely unnecessary. (Source.)
This doesn’t mean that the PersonHood Alliance is opposed to vaccines however, as they, and Christians in general, are still very much pro-vaccine. They just don’t like vaccines developed from aborted babies, but they still want their vaccines.
Cellular Engineering Technologies and the John Paul II Medical Research Institute have created what Dr. Moy calls “the largest pipeline of ethical human cell lines that do not require the use of aborted fetal cells or embryonic stem cells.”
Dr. Moy notes that these cell lines can be used for production and testing of vaccines, biologics, gene therapy, and cell therapy “by combining modern genetic methods with post-natal stem cells”—namely, stem cells derived from umbilical cord blood. (Source.)
Here’s a novel and radical idea that Christians maybe want to consider: How about trusting God to protect you from future diseases instead of trusting Big Pharma?
Oh no, they could never do that. Just think of the revenue they would lose in the weekly offering plate if they offended all the members of their churches who are employed by Big Pharma.
After all, Franklin Graham has told the world that “Jesus Christ would advocate for people using vaccines.” (Source.)
By the way, any updates on how Mr. Graham’s health is these days since having heart surgery for pericarditis after getting the COVID-19 vaccines last year? (Source.)