Do you know where the flu vaccine comes from?

psychokitten QLD • Posts: 340

1 16 Apr 2011

My friend works at a factory that produces things like the flu vaccine.
For those of you that don't know they use fertilised eggs to create the vaccines.
The whole thing disgusts me, they've inbred the chickens that produce their eggs, keeping them locked in sheds in quarantine. If the eggs are allowed to hatch and grow up they are deformed to the point of it being cruel to keep them alive.
They keep the fertilsed eggs under light 24hrs a day. The chicks are too weak to react when they "candle" the eggs (checking their development by putting a light behind the egg). When they're ready to harvest the fluids, they chill the eggs then throw them away when they're done, freezing the chicks. The eggs they don't use are thrown away, pre chilling, killing them much slower.
The current strain of the flu they're working on has a much higher failure rate. Over four tonnes of eggs are discarded a night. It become AQIS restricted landfill.

They also have animal testing facilities onsite but she only works in vaccine with the eggs.

My friend watched Earthlings a couple of months ago at my request and it's clearly affected her on some level.
She's trying to change the way things happen, though there isn't much room in science.
At this stage it'll probably only mean turning the lights off while she's there overnight, benefitting the chicks, then using the saved electricity to justify freezing the discarded ones too.
But she's also doing some research now to try and convince her company to switch to agar instead of eggs, but there are still a lot of bugs in that system.

I'm still upset by the whole system and its awful, but I just wanted to share. I'm so glad I had her watch Earthlings, she has the potential to change things like this.

I'd like to hear what positive reactions you've had by having someone watch Earthlings, or educating anyone in some way. What good have you seen lately?

+ 2

Pegs VIC • Posts: 1538

2 16 Apr 2011

No.1 that is absolutely horrible what they do to those chicks! sad

No.2 that is awesome what your friend is trying to do, to change the way the chicks are treated
No. 3 unfortunately I didn't get anyone to watch Earthlings, cause when I watched it, I had to in secret, cause I'm not allowed to watch that stuff cause it might give me "ideas" or might make me "upset"

But as so as I get older, I'm gonna sit down with a friend and watch it! Although i did email the link to some of my old primary school friends and told them they should watch it! My friend's family actually went Vegan for 3 months, for religious reasons. I asked her if she would stay veg, but she said maybe no. Oh well

+ 1

Lars NSW • Posts: 825

3 16 Apr 2011

woo, i haven't' bothered to get a flue vaccine in the past few years but I think i'll take the risk and never take it again, its such a shame that pretty much every medical breakthrough "requires" some sort of exploitation of animals

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..1 TAS • Posts: 2265

4 16 Apr 2011

I haven't had a flu vaccine in years either. I didn't even get the swine flu vaccine.

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Lars NSW • Posts: 825

5 16 Apr 2011

neither! and my brother got it, but I didn't

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..1 TAS • Posts: 2265

6 16 Apr 2011

I think a lot of vaccines are just a money making scam for drug companies.

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Jen VIC • Posts: 619

7 16 Apr 2011

I had no idea... sad

that's just really disgusting and vile.
I REALLY HOPE someone finds an alternative really soon, cruelty free alternatives for all vaccinations... (if that's possible?).
What's really upsetting is I'm required to get the flu shot every year as part of my course, and I usually don't want to anyway because I've heard that sometimes it doesn't even work... but I know I can't not get it otherwise I will fail (that's a guarantee, no exceptions).
It's just so upsetting to hear that, (but I guess what was I expecting right? I mean it's science... U.U)
><. I really wish I didn't have to get it, I feel like a monster.

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psychokitten QLD • Posts: 340

8 16 Apr 2011

Jen said:

I had no idea... sad

that's just really disgusting and vile.
I REALLY HOPE someone finds an alternative really soon, cruelty free alternatives for all vaccinations... (if that's possible?).
What's really upsetting is I'm required to get the flu shot every year as part of my course, and I usually don't want to anyway because I've heard that sometimes it doesn't even work... but I know I can't not get it otherwise I will fail (that's a guarantee, no exceptions).
It's just so upsetting to hear that, (but I guess what was I expecting right? I mean it's science... U.U)
><. I really wish I didn't have to get it, I feel like a monster.

Glaxo Smith Kline (not the company my friend works for sadly) is working on a much better way, no eggs.
It can be slower and so far is more expensive but they can just up production when they need to, they wouldn't have to wait for eggs.
It also yields much better results, the egg system changes the virus slightly everytime, nothing is the same as it went in.
They just have to work out how to control the environment of the tanks enough that the virus they're trying to harvest doesn't get eaten by something else.
Hopefully in the next ten years or so it'll all be changed over.

I haven't had a flu shot since she started working there, I've also been much more vigilant and buying things without animal testing.

She's got stories about messed up animals escaping into the grounds... It's just heartbreaking

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psychokitten QLD • Posts: 340

9 16 Apr 2011

Jen said:

I had no idea... sad

that's just really disgusting and vile.
I REALLY HOPE someone finds an alternative really soon, cruelty free alternatives for all vaccinations... (if that's possible?).
What's really upsetting is I'm required to get the flu shot every year as part of my course, and I usually don't want to anyway because I've heard that sometimes it doesn't even work... but I know I can't not get it otherwise I will fail (that's a guarantee, no exceptions).
It's just so upsetting to hear that, (but I guess what was I expecting right? I mean it's science... U.U)
><. I really wish I didn't have to get it, I feel like a monster.

What course are you doing that requires that?

Say you're allergic to eggs!

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..1 TAS • Posts: 2265

10 16 Apr 2011

psychokitten said:

Glaxo Smith Kline (not the company my friend works for sadly) is working on a much better way, no eggs.
It can be slower and so far is more expensive but they can just up production when they need to, they wouldn't have to wait for eggs.
It also yields much better results, the egg system changes the virus slightly everytime, nothing is the same as it went in.
They just have to work out how to control the environment of the tanks enough that the virus they're trying to harvest doesn't get eaten by something else.
Hopefully in the next ten years or so it'll all be changed over.

I haven't had a flu shot since she started working there, I've also been much more vigilant and buying things without animal testing.

She's got stories about messed up animals escaping into the grounds... It's just heartbreaking

...And I thought that stuff only happened in movies!

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Do you know where the flu vaccine comes from?

Something positive from having a friend watch Earthlings