Tag: SV40

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Bioethics Medicine Pseudoscience

False analogies and pseudoscience as “moral arguments” against the use of fetal cell lines to manufacture vaccines

Using fetal cells to grow virus for vaccines

Antivaxers frequently object to the use of fetal cell lines to manufacture vaccines on “moral” grounds. Über-quack Joe Mercola lays down some astonishingly bad moral arguments based on pseudoscience.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bioethics Complementary and alternative medicine Medicine Popular culture Pseudoscience Skepticism/critical thinking

How “aborted fetal cells” contributed to vaccines preventing billions of cases of disease and many million deaths

Antiabortion antivaccine activists like to claim that “aborted fetal cells” in vaccines mean that vaccines are contaminated products of evil. In reality, there are no “aborted fetal cells” in vaccines. A cell line derived from an aborted fetus in 1962 did, however, lead to huge advances in vaccine technology and the prevention of many millions of deaths worldwide.

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Antivaccine nonsense Bad science Complementary and alternative medicine Quackery

A zombie meme rises from the grave: Maurice Hilleman, the polio vaccine, SV40, and cancer

SV40: The Return of the Living Dead
SV40 is back from the grave and ready to party!

Did you know that vaccine pioneer Maurice Hilleman admitted that contaminating SV40 virus in early batches of oral polio causes cancer? That’s because he didn’t, although antivaxers keep claiming that he did and that SV40 from early batches of polio vaccine cause cancer. It almost certainly doesn’t.