Last week, Jason blogged about Sakile S. Chenzira, a vegan person who got fired for refusing to get a flu shot. Flu shots, you see, are made with eggs, which are decidedly not vegan. Want to know how to grow a flu vaccine? Here’s a fun interview explaining the process. Or, if you enjoy reading, here’s an explanation of how the flu vaccine is made. There is talk of moving production away from ovum (that’s latin for eggs– fancy!), but even those seem to involve “animal cells.”
So, we asked:
Is it ok for at-risk vegans to get a flu shot even though they are made with eggs?
— SuperVegan (@SuperVegan) January 15, 2013
And a lot of you answered:
@supervegan Absolutely. It’s all about doing the best you can.
— Lazy Smurf (@veganLazySmurf) January 15, 2013
@supervegan I do.I’m a nurse and it’s important to protect myself and my patients.
— Jennifer (@joyfulvegan) January 15, 2013
@supervegan It’s a slippery slope, but I don’t think dying of the flu is going to make you a very effective advocate in the long run.
— Chelsea Detheridge (@veganvala) January 15, 2013
@supervegan I struggle with this one, because I work with the public at one of my jobs. I have not gotten one, though.
— Vegan Love & Sex (@VeganLoveandSex) January 15, 2013
@supervegan I would not, but I’m not at-risk so as others have pointed out, it’s not about total perfection & you have to stay healthy.
— Danna Quintana (@VeganStrong) January 15, 2013
Can’t they make them with @thevegg? RT @supervegan If you are an at-risk vegan, is it ok to get a flu shot even tho they are made with eggs?
— Insufferable Vegan (@InsufferableV) January 15, 2013
I agree w. @choosingraw choosingraw.com/vaccinated/ @supervegan Is it ok for at-risk vegans to get a flu shot even though they are made with eggs?
— Sarah E.(@QueerVeganFood) January 15, 2013
@supervegan I have always considered medical necessity to trump orthodox veganism. So yes, at-risk vegans should get a flu shot.
— Kate B (@ClassyVegan) January 15, 2013
@supervegan But then again, I never get a flu shot because of the way the vaccine is produced and I always end up getting the flu.
— Kate B (@ClassyVegan) January 15, 2013
@supervegan Rather than risk her/his life; I’m going to go with yes. We can always lobby for changing the vaccine in the mean time.
— A secret red slider (@TortugaSkeptic) January 15, 2013
@supervegan Vaccinated or not, we should all focus on eating well, getting enough sleep, exercise, and fluids, and keeping sanitary!
— Jason Das (@floodfish) January 15, 2013
@supervegan I’m vegan and I haven’t gotten the flu shot. I am honestly more concerned about the thimerosal, and less about the eggs.
— Marisa Rospos (@marisarospos) January 16, 2013
@supervegan I have a friend who refuses any shot that isn’t vegan. I on the other hand had the flu, strep, & ear infection at once so gimme.
— Siobhan McBitch (@bon_siobhan) January 16, 2013
@supervegan I wouldn’t myself. But I would leave it up to the individual to make that decision based on their conscience.
— rak (@veganrak) January 16, 2013
@supervegan Yes, flu kills & there’s no other treatment, and if we don’t get the vaccination & get the flu, we put many others at risk.
— Sunny Ⓥ (@Sonnische) January 16, 2013
Do you have thoughts of your own on the flu shot? Share them with us, either on Twitter or in the comments here, or both!
5 Comments
Rick Mendez
on #Even if I weren’t a vegan, it would definitely be a “NO” for the flu vaccine. We have been lied and misinformed about the ingredients and affects of such a vaccine! Mercury, aluminum and other known toxic ingredients to humans are in the vaccine. Why would you want to risk adverse affects from the vaccine, if you have other existing conditions? We should be working on building and stregthening our own immune system naturally without foreign chemicals that our bodies are unfamiliar with. Lemons & limes, garlic, ginger, peppermint and many other fruits, herbs and natural aromatic things can assist the body naturally in preventing or fighting temporary things such as the flu. No thank you vaccine companies! Pushing vaccines for the sole purpose of profit under the deception of public health.
http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-7403/how-to-fight-the-flu-with-holistic-warfare.html
Jason Das
on #I’m surprised that (so far) nobody has responded with a fundamentalist “hell no, that’s not vegan and you can’t call yourself a vegan if you get it”. Those people pop up pretty reliably, but maybe this is a gray area for them, too?
Stacy De-Lin
on #As a vegan and a physician, I recommend that people get their flu shot. I recently posted this on my facebook wall and a fellow vegan asked about this same issue. I’ll copy and paste my response below about this.
I would also like to comment on Rick’s post above… most vaccines, including the flu shot, are now thimerosal (mercury) free. While thimerosal vaccines exist, I usually give mercury-free vaccines, as do most doctors. However, large scale trials have shown that thimerosal is safe. Unfortunately, the natural remedies Rick listed above, while certainly not harmful, have never been shown in any studies to either prevent or treat the flu.
Anyway, here was my post. Thanks, SuperVegan, for taking up this question!
=====
Flu vaccines, sadly, are not cruelty-free. No vaccine or medication (over the counter or prescription) is free from animal testing. It’s an outdated and cruel system which I, as a physician, speak out against often. Animal trials rarely correlate to safety in humans, and sometimes provide disastrous results– I’ll attach this great Slate article about this issue below. That being said, the system is what it is, for now. While we have choice to avoid animal products in foods and animal-tested cosmetics and household products, we don’t have the same choice when it comes to medicine. It would be disastrous to recommend that vegans reject all vaccines and all modern medicine. In order to continue to fight for animal rights, we’ve got to stay alive. And while the flu may not kill YOU as a young, healthy person (although you certainly might FEEL like you’re going to die), if you were to transmit the flu to an elderly person or child on the subway, they might not survive. I got a flu shot to protect my patients and those around me.
http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/medical_examiner/2006/06/of_mice_or_men.html
tara
on #i wish the vaccine wasn’t made with eggs, but i will possibly consider getting the flu shot next year because i had the flu a couple weeks ago and it was horrible. i consider myself a healthy vegan but that didn’t prevent me from getting the flu. I am concerned about the thimerosal/mercury in the vaccines. some of the vaccines do contain mercury so i would make sure i was getting a mercury free vaccine. the following is from the CDC website. Since seasonal influenza vaccine is produced in large quantities for annual immunization campaigns, some of the vaccine is produced in multi-dose vials, and contains thimerosal to safeguard against possible contamination of the vial once it is opened. The single-dose units are made without thimerosal as a preservative because they are intended to be opened and used only once. Additionally, the live-attenuated version of the vaccine (the nasal spray vaccine), is produced in single-dose units and does not contain thimerosal.
harlemB
on #I have been vegan for nearly 24 years. I have found that, unless we grow our own foods, make our own clothes, cleaning supplies, medicines, etc., the chances are very good that we’ve partaken in some things non-vegan, knowingly or otherwise. I know that I make every effort to avoid those things that are derived from animals and/or cause animal suffering. For years, I have refused the flu shot. It never mattered to me how severe the outbreaks have been, I have stuck to my vegan guns and took my chances. I live in NYC and we’ve had pretty big outbreaks. I’ve had the flu before and it sucks. I am pretty healthy and I lived through it. This year, things are different. I have a 5 month old baby. She is too young to get the flu shot herself but is considered “at risk.” Therefore, I had to make the difficult decision to get the shot this year. For a moment, I felt as if I sacrificed my “vegan cred,” but my daughter’s health is more important to me than any badge of honor. I do not like the way they are made and know they can be made safely without animal ingredients. I will again write the pharma companies and express to them the importance of veg based inoculations, but right now, I can live with the decision I made knowing that I am taking an extra step to protect my daughter.