QUARANTINE BLOG # 234

November 19, 2020

I am devoting the entire blog today – a lengthy blog – to one subject: an Instagram post which was duplicated on Facebook.  Before I go into the posts, and I will do so at some length, let me tell you this kind of stuff, in the name of Christianity, really pushes one of my hot buttons.  Christians run around screaming, “The sky is falling,” people hear them and spread the story.  Then the story is debunked, Christians get a black eye (maybe well-deserved) but the rumors never stop.  And more and more the word of Christians is discounted because they don’t check things out, they just start running in circles screaming, “Danger!  Apocalypse!  I talked to my cousin who heard it from his mechanic who heard it from blah blah blah, who swears they saw it, so it must be true!” 

One more thing.  On the Facebook page I will be examining, there are anti-vaccination posts and anti-face mask posts.  Read into that as much or as little as you will.

Here we go.

Yesterday one of our readers sent me a link to an Instagram post (the poster is identified as  “quantumascension”) (https://www.instagram.com/tv/CHqb0hMHME6/?igshid=14j035ka6xcb1) in which an unidentified woman makes many inflammatory statements about a COVID-19 vaccine being tested by AstraZeneca.  

The same post is on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?v=410961569924049&ref=watch_permalink) where the poster is identified as “We Are Vaxxed.”  During her bombast (I have been unable to learn her name, so I will call her Ms. Q/V) she shows the packaging from the AstraZeneca vaccine.  

Ms. Q/V frequently says, “Do your own research.”  Well, she should have done hers.  

Ms. Q/V also uses the word “fact” 4 times.  She should have checked hers.  

If you click on this link to the Facebook piece, a grey screen covers the video and gives the statement: “False information.  Checked by independent checkers.”  

Then there are two boxes you can click on.  The first says “See Why.”  

The second box says “See Video.”  If you stop now to watch it, please come back and read the rest of the blog.

Here is a VERY brief summary of Ms. Q/V’s charges as she shows the package from AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine (which is still being tested):

1. She points to the phrase “ChAdOx1” which is on the label– she calls the terminology “Chad Zero Times One” – and never comes back to it.  It is the technology used to create AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine.  The whole name is ChAdOx1 nCoV-19.  As best as I can understand, that is the way AstraZeneca pursued the development of their vaccine.

2. She reads one sentence from the Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recombinant_DNA) on “recombinant” with a voice expression dripping with sarcasm and terrible anxiety. She declares, “This STUFF is in this vaccine.”  Well, no it’s not! 

3. MRC-5 is another issue she raises, and quotes again Wikipedia: “developed from the lung tissue of a 14-week-old aborted male fetus” (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MRC-5), but she is not honest!  The very next sentence says, “The cell line was isolated by J.P. Jacobs and colleagues in September 1966,” and she fails to mention that – a significant omission. No new cells are being gathered.  The original cells were gathered 54 years ago.  At the end of that sentence are two footnotes.  The first says, “The MRC-5 cell line was derived from normal lung tissue of a 14-week-old male fetus by J.P. Jacobs in September of 1966.”  The second says, “The MRC-5 cell line was developed in September 1966 from lung tissue taken from a 14 week fetus aborted for psychiatric reason from a 27 year old physically healthy woman.” [emphasis mine].

4. Ms. Q/V points out an Artificial Intelligence research tool is requested to process the expected high number of COVID-19 vaccine Adverse Drug Reactions.  Then she says, “They KNOW that this vaccine is hurt people, or some people BADLY.” The emphasis is in her voice.

Okay.  Those are the statements which Ms. Q/V says she has researched and which she claims are FACT.  It took me about an hour to debunk her claims.  I have included the links to the articles I read.  Except for one very important article from Reuters, I have not appealed to any popular news media.  I quote either from respected scientific journals, or from manufacturers’ websites.

Let me repeat one of my favorite Paul Harvey quotations: “I’m going to tell you more than I know.”  I do not understand everything I’ve read, but these articles are solid and truthful.

You’ve read her 4 points above.  I will label each section below referring to Ms. Q/V’s points.

POINT 1

A study which appeared in “Lancet,” one of the most respected of all medical journals,  described a test using ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 (https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(20)31604-4/fulltext).  ChAdOx1 was a CHIMPANZEE adenovirus-vectored vaccine (a group of common viruses that are chemically weakened to stimulate an immune response).  Here is another article from the National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information on “simian adenovirus ChAdOx1” (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24374965/). No where in Ms. Q/V’s post does she mention that fact.  Chimpanzee.  Simian.  Not human material. “ChAdOx1 is a weakened and non-replicating version of the common cold virus (adenovirus) taken from chimpanzees, which has been engineered to contain instructions for creating the spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 – the virus that causes COVID-19.” 

POINT 2

Ms. Q/V talks about Recombinant DNA.  Quoting the Wikipedia article (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Recombinant_DNA) she used, “Recombinant DNA molecules are DNA molecules formed by laboratory methods of genetic recombination (such as molecular cloning) to bring together genetic material from multiple sources, creating sequences that would not otherwise be found in the genome.”  This has been going on for decades, and indeed, has used cells from aborted babies.

Fetal cells have indeed been used in producing the COVID-19 vaccines, but they were derived from the tissues of babies aborted in the 1970s and 80s. It is important to note that the babies were not aborted because they were intended to be used in coronavirus research and development!

The cells used by most of the companies now trying to find a COVID-19 treatment were derived from the kidney tissue of a baby aborted in the 1970s. The cells, called HEK-293, have been used to develop other vaccines, including rubella, hepatitis A, chickenpox and more (https://www.sciencenews.org/article/coronavirus-covid19-vaccine-ethical-issues). 

Another research line was obtained in 1985 from the retinal cells of an aborted 18-week-old baby. This is PER.C6, a proprietary cell line owned by Janssen, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson (https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/06/abortion-opponents-protest-covid-19-vaccines-use-fetal-cells). 

POINT 3

Ms. Q/V makes much about lung tissue from an aborted Caucasian male.  An article from Reuters  (https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-factcheck-vaccine/fact-check-lung-tissue-of-an-aborted-male-foetus-is-not-in-the-vaccine-for-coronavirus-idUSKBN27W2I7) says emphatically: “There is no lung tissue of an aborted male fetus in the Oxford AstraZeneca vaccine for coronavirus. The independent study referring to MRC-5, which was mentioned in the video, was part of pre-clinical research using fetal cell lines, and was not included in the manufacturing of the vaccine itself. Fetal cell lines are used to develop vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines, but the vaccine goes through a purification process before delivery and these cells do not form a component of the vaccine.”

The Reuters article is a powerful one, and I recommend you take the time to read it.

Human cells have been used since the 1960s to manufacture vaccines, including current vaccines against rubella, chickenpox, hepatitis A, and shingles. They have also been used to make approved drugs against diseases including hemophilia, rheumatoid arthritis, and cystic fibrosis.

Those cells – typically called “immortalized” – are genetically manipulated so they will, in effect, live forever. They are not taken from newly aborted babies.

Another interesting story that Ms. Q/V does not mention, but is close to the discussion above, concerns Henrietta Lacks, an African-American woman, whose cancer cells were harvested in 1951 while she was undergoing treatment, and produced the first immortalized human cell line.  Among other things, they were used to produce the polio vaccines.  Read about Mrs. Lacks in this article from Johns Hopkins Medicine (https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/henriettalacks/).  There is an accompanying 6 minute video, featuring her great granddaughter and her grandson supporting and praising the work that Mrs. Lacks’ cells have produced.

It goes without saying that I am opposed to abortion (Dr. C. Everett Coop, who was the Surgeon General from 1982-1989, said he never, in all of his medical career, saw a case where an abortion was necessary to save the mother’s life), but this current research is using genetic material that is 50 years old.  The baby was aborted – sad!  wrong! – but that tissue is now being used to save lives.  The baby was not aborted for scientific research.  Something good is coming out of something bad.

POINT 4

Ms. Q/V makes much about Adverse Drug Reactions (ADR) in AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine.  From AstraZeneca’s website (https://www.astrazeneca.com/media-centre/press-releases/2020/statement-on-astrazeneca-oxford-sars-cov-2-vaccine-azd1222-covid-19-vaccine-trials-temporary-pause.html) one patient experienced the symptoms.  One participant!  In the vaccine produced by Moderna and Pfizer, high fever, body aches, headaches and exhaustion were adverse reactions.  While the symptoms were uncomfortable, and at times intense, they often went away after a day, sometimes less.  At Johnson & Johnson (https://www.jnj.com/our-company/johnson-johnson-prepares-to-resume-phase-3-ensemble-trial-of-its-janssen-covid-19-vaccine-candidate-in-the-us), COVID-19 research, showed ADR in one participant out of 60,000!  

Other vaccines – specifically flu and shingles (both of which I’ve taken in recent weeks) produce adverse side effects, or ADR.  World Health Organization  (https://www.who.int/vaccine_safety/initiative/tools/Influenza_Vaccine_rates_information_sheet.pdf) says for flu vaccine “fever, general discomfort and muscle pain” ... “ generally persist 1 – 2 days.”  ADR for shingles vaccine, a report from the company that produces it (https://www.shingrix.com/side-effects.html) says exhibits: pain, redness, and swelling at the injection site, muscle pain, tiredness, headache, shivering, fever, upset stomach.  Severe allergic reactions are less common and include: hives, swelling of the face/throat, difficulty breathing, a fast heartbeat, dizziness, and weakness.”

To return to where I began: In 1999, I wrote a Not For Sunday Only column for the “Augusta Chronicle” called “Procter & Gamble: When Christians Spread Lies” (http://davidsisler.com/8-28-99.htm) which deals with rumor mongering.  

In 1995, I wrote a column (http://davidsisler.com/9-16.htm) which asks, “In order to be a believer in Jesus Christ, is it necessary to suspend intelligence?  What part does good old-fashioned common sense play in assessing spiritual claims?”

If you are not “read-out” give those two pieces a look-see.

Blessings!

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