Cells from human foetuses are important for developing vaccines – but they’re not an ingredient

By Alessondra T Speidel, Postdoctoral Researcher, Karolinska Institutet

The US Conference of Catholic Bishops recently issued a statement advising Catholics to opt for the Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines over the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, if possible, because human embryonic cells collected from an aborted foetus were used to develop the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

Using human embryonic cells from aborted foetuses in vaccine development has been controversial for some faiths. Given the severity of the pandemic and the necessity that a significant percentage…

Read complete article

~	Getting to know Juan Pablo Martínez: A Q&A with an Aragonese language activist

~	Universal’s music is returning to TikTok, ending a spat that hurt fans more than anyone

~	Hadeda ibises’ ‘sixth sense’ works best in wet soil: new research is a wake-up call for survival of wading birds with this superpower

~	An American writer with a European sensibility, Paul Auster viewed his society from an oblique angle

~	Figures like Andrew Tate may help spread misogyny. But they’re amplifying – not causing – the problem

~	Lebanon: End use of defamation laws to target journalists and critics

~	Niger: Press freedom in jeopardy as journalists working on conflict intimidated and arrested

~	Chad: Military government’s leading opponent Yaya Dillo Djérou dies

~	To tackle gendered violence, we also need to look at drugs, trauma and mental health

~	Human Rights Watch Launches Podcast