If two doses are needed for every person in the world, half a million sharks will have to be killed. | Photo credit: iStock Images
Key points
- Most commercial vaccines use squalene, a component of some adjuvants, which is added to vaccines to enhance the immune response.
- The advocacy group has expressed concern that the killing of hundreds of thousands of sharks will do irreversible damage to the ocean ecosystem.
New Delhi: In the race to find a potent solution to the deadly coronavirus, at least half a million sharks may be euthanized worldwide to prepare the COVID-19 vaccine, claims an advocacy group for Shark Allies.
Conservationists have warned that shark squalene is being considered in COVID-19 vaccines. Squalene is a naturally occurring organic compound found in shark liver oil.
Most commercial vaccines use squalene, a component of some adjuvants, which is added to vaccines to enhance the immune response.
According to Shark Allies, if the world’s population is to receive a dose of each of the vaccines, around 250,000 sharks would have to be killed. Experts suggest that it takes 2,500 to 3,000 sharks to extract a ton of squalene.
If two doses are needed for every person in the world, half a million sharks will have to be slaughtered, according to a Euronews report.
The advocacy group has expressed concern that the killing of hundreds of thousands of sharks will do irreversible damage to the ocean ecosystem.
Shark Allies has suggested that there is a need for plant-based and synthetic alternatives to the use of squalene in vaccines.
“We are in no way trying to hinder or slow the development of a COVID-19 vaccine or any other critical treatment that is necessary to protect humanity from disease,” the euronews report quotes Stefanie Brendl, founder of Shark Allies, with based in California.
Stefanie Brendl added, “We are calling for sustainably sourced squalene to be used in all non-critical applications and where the alternative is as effective as shark squalene, and that all future adjuvant vaccine trials are giving equal consideration to sources of plant origin. “She also said that getting adjuvant from a wild animal is not a long-term solution.
