Does the ACAM2000 smallpox vaccine contain African green monkey kidney cells, fetal bovine serum and aborted human fetal cells? No, that's not true: It does not contain fetal bovine serum or aborted human fetal cells. Instead, it uses African green monkey kidney (Vero) cells that were replicated in a laboratory. The utilization of cell lines derived from decades-old fetal and monkey cells is a common procedure for growing viruses required in certain vaccine formulations.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) on TikTok on January 15, 2024. It began:
Have you ever wondered how vaccines are really made? Let's take a look at the smallpox vaccine ACAM2000, approved by the FDA in 2007. Everything you are about to see here is 100% documented on the CDC and FDA websites. As you can see from this vaccine insert published by the FDA, this vaccine uses African green monkey kidney cells. It is one of the approved excipients also listed in this CDC document, which mentions other ingredients used in vaccines, including cow blood serum, chicken blood parts, pig blood serum and even aborted human fetal cell lines that were originally harvested from an aborted human baby.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Feb 14 08:48:40 2024 UTC)
Smallpox was officially declared eradicated by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1980, rendering the vaccine unnecessary for the general public (archived here). However, it is still used to protect laboratory researchers working with certain pox viruses and by the U.S. military. One of the first-generation vaccines, Dryvax (archived here), approved in 1931, was cultivated on calfskin but is no longer produced.
The ACAM2000 vaccine (archived here), classified as a second-generation vaccine, received U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for active immunization against smallpox disease for individuals considered to be at high risk of smallpox infection. Unlike many other vaccines that use inactive or "dead" virus strains, ACAM2000 is composed of the live vaccinia virus (archived here), a "pox"-type virus related to smallpox, but causing milder symptoms. ACAM2000 cannot cause smallpox as it lacks the smallpox virus. Instead, it is derived from the New York City Board of Health strain of vaccinia, shared with the Dryvax vaccine, according to the FDA (archived here).
ACAM2000 is purified and produced using contemporary cell culture technology. It is cultured in African green monkey kidney (Vero) cells and rigorously tested, ensuring its purity.
Vero cells (archived here), originating from African green monkey kidneys in the 1960s, have been replicated and maintained in laboratory conditions, providing a consistent cell line crucial for research and vaccine development. They are among the most frequently utilized mammalian continuous cell lines in scientific research.
The ACAM2000 vaccine does not contain aborted human fetal cells either, as the post claims. Fetal cell lines, occasionally utilized in vaccine manufacturing, consist of cells cultivated in laboratory settings. Originating from fetal tissue obtained from abortions in the 1970s and 1980s, these cells have undergone thousands of generations, proliferating over several decades to establish fetal cell lines. Importantly, the fetuses were not aborted for the purpose of vaccine development. Current fetal cell lines are vastly removed from the original fetal tissue and devoid of any direct fetal tissue components (archived here).
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention list of excipients, which are inert ingredients (archived here) used in vaccines, the ACAM2000 vaccine contains HEPES, 2 percent human serum albumin, 0.5-0.7 percent sodium chloride USP, 5 percent Mannitol USP, neomycin, polymyxin B, 50 percent Glycerin USP, 0.25 percent phenol USP. Fetal bovine serum is not included in this list.
