AstraZeneca Vaccine Doesn't Contain Lung Tissue of Male Fetus

Misbar’s investigation shows that the claim is false. The viral video making the claim shows a picture on a computer screen of the packaging for the AstraZeneca-developed COVID-19 vaccine ChAdOx1-S, also known as AZD1222. Viewers then see research of AZD1222, which reads: “We used direct RNA sequencing to analyse transcript expression from the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 genome in human MRC-5 and A549 cell lines that are non-permissive for vector replication alongside the replication permissive cell line, HEK293.”

The video then goes to the Wikipedia page for MRC-5 cell lines, at which point the narrator notes that the cell line was developed derived from “lung tissue of a 14-week-old aborted Caucasian male fetus.” A spokesperson for AstraZeneca claimed that the MRC-5 cell line was used to develop the vaccine. 

However, while cell lines are used to produce vaccines, scientist and co-author of the study David Matthews says that the video mischaracterizes what is in the vaccine and that the vaccine was injected into the MRC-5 cell line, not made with MRC-5 cells.

The Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine was developed with help from the HEK 293 cell line, which was grown from a kidney derived from an aborted fetus. According to Matthews, the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine creates a modified virus that teaches the immune system to identify cells infected with COVID-19, which is grown in the HEK 293 cell line. Once the modified virus is grown, the cells are then filtered to create the vaccine, leaving trace amounts of fragmented DNA from the cell line.

The study referenced in the video was part of pre-clinical research using fetal cell lines, and was not included in the manufacturing of the vaccine itself. While fetal cell lines are used to create vaccines, they go through a “purification” process so the cells themselves do not form a part of the vaccine.