Listed [in the viewable document] are vaccine ingredients (substances that appear in the final vaccine product), process ingredients (substances used to create the vaccine that may or may not appear in the final vaccine product), and growth mediums (the substances vaccines are grown in) for vaccines licensed for use by the Food & Drug Administration (FDA).
Controversial products used to make vaccines include but are not limited to: African Green Monkey (Vero) cells, aluminum, cow products, Cocker Spaniel cells, formaldehyde, human fetal lung tissue cells, insect products, and mouse brains.
More information on some controversial products may be found in the glossary on this page.
Some vaccines, like influenza (flu) vaccines, are modified frequently and you may wish to consult your doctor’s office or pharmacy for the most current information.
Aluminum is used in vaccines as an adjuvant, which helps the vaccine work more quickly and more powerfully.
Bovine serum comes from blood taken from domestic cattle.
Bovine serum is categorized according to the age of the animal from which the blood was collected as follows:
– ‘Fetal bovine serum’ comes from fetuses
– ‘Newborn calf serum’ comes from calves less than three weeks old
– ‘Calf serum’ comes from calves aged between three weeks and 12 months
Human albumin is a blood plasma protein produced in the liver…
Live mice brains are inoculated with the Japanese encephalitis virus to grow the virus used in the vaccine.
MRC-5: [H]uman diploid cells… derived from the normal lung tissues of a 14-week-old male fetus aborted for “psychiatric reasons”…
WI-38: [H]uman diploid lung fibroblasts derived from the lung tissues of a female fetus aborted because the family felt they had too many children…