‘Blatant Hypocrisy’: Trump Heralds Covid-19 Drugs He Took Made Possible by Fetal Cell Research His GOP Actively Works to Ban

As Science explains:

Although the monoclonal antibodies infused into Trump were not made from or in fetal cells, Regeneron did develop that treatment with the help of a long-lived line of cells established from the kidneys of a fetus electively aborted in the Netherlands around 1972. The company relied on those widely used cells, known HEK-293 cells, to make mimics of the coronavirus spike protein. Researchers used these proteins to test the potency of antibodies found in Covid-19 patients or made in mice with a humanlike immune system.

The antiviral drug Remdesivir, which Trump took last week, was also developed with those same cell lines. The New York Times reports at least two other pharmaceutical companies working on a coronavirus vaccine—Moderna and AstraZeneca—also rely on the cells, and Johnson & Johnson is testing its vaccine using another cell line derived from fetal tissue.