Day: October 23, 2000

BBC Surprise Discovery: Vaccines Made Using Animal Material

Given that the United Kingdom is the source of rather intensive activities by animal rights activists, you’d think the British public might be better informed about issues relating to animals. Of course you’d be wrong, as the BBC felt it had to actually run a story this week pointing out that vaccines are typically made using animal cells.

According to the BBC story, How vaccines are made, “many people would be surprised at the animal-based ingredients scientists must use to mass-produce vaccines.” Sad, very sad.

Anyway, aside from the “duh” aspect to the story, it is a pretty good summary of how vaccines go from laboratory to syringe. One of the things that the BBC points out is that often animal material is used rather than human material because scientists have a much better understanding of how to get the animal material to produce vaccine material.

The cells are bathed in a “soup” made up of those ingredients, and frequently include other organic chemicals such as growth factors, which can help the cells to develop.

Although human growth factors can be extracted, these do not provide as reliable results as other factors, such as foetal calf serum, which is widely used

Remember that the next time animal rights activists suggest that human cells and materials can totally replace animal culture. Sometimes they can, but in many cases they can’t.

The reason for the BBC interest, by the way, is fear that polio vaccine manufactured in the UK that used tissue from calf fetuses could potentially be contaminated with BSE. There are already strict controls to monitor cows used for this purpose to avoiding any viruses, and at the moment the risk remains very theoretical — the procedures involved in purifying the vaccines should destroy all of the proteins that would contain any BSE.

Even with the theoretical risk, polio vaccine made with animal products has been an amazing success. Cases of polio around the world have plummeted to less than 10,000 and the World Health Organization is currently engaged in a massive vaccination effort around the world that should eradicate the disease entirely by the year 2005.

Such a success would have been impossible if the animal rights activists had gotten their way and prevented the creation of animal models for polio (and polio was extremely animal testing intensive with upwards of 2 million non-human primates utilized by research institutes around the world in the drive for an effective, safe vaccine).

Source:

How vaccines are made. The BBC, October 20, 2000.

Say Goodbye to Ladies Night

According to the Orlando Sentinel, real-estate agent Christopher Langdon recently took several Florida bars to court. His complaint? He was denied free drinks at a bar during a Ladies Night promotion based entirely on his sex — based only on the fact that he was a man, he was not given free drinks.

He’s suing in federal court asking for $100,000 and a ban on ladies night-style promotions. Sound bizarre? A bit, but (a) at some point Langdon or some other man is going to succeed in such a lawsuit, and (b) Ladies Nights promotions are almost certainly going to be a thing of the past.

In the name of gender equality, several states have already passed laws which courts have interpreted as outright banning sex-based promotions at bars and restaurants. As Langdon himself rhetorically asks, “If you allow this type of discrimination [Ladies Night], then why wouldn’t you have, for example, a white businessman’s lunch?”

At least one of the bars came up with a novel legal theory, but it will be shot down eventually. Lawyers for Mark NeJame, who owned the Zuma Beach Club in Florida, argue that since men pay the same price for drinks on Ladies Night as they do any other night of the week, there is no price discrimination — rather there is a special break for women, in return for which men get the benefit of additional women at the bar (and lets face it, the reason drinks are given free or cheap to women is largely to draw in more men as well).

That won’t fly since, as Langdon points out, even under this theory the action constitutes sexual discrimination against married men (who presumably just want a drink not an intangible opportunity to score with a single woman).

“This is what it boils down to,” Langdon told the Orlando Sentinel, “Men have to pay millions of dollars more for drinks and entertainment than women. I just don’t think it’s fair that men should pay for food or entertainment or beverages than women — I don’t think the converse is fair either.”

And there’s the rub. Courts have begun to show a willingness to take on cases where women claim that they are charged different prices than men for the same service. Some of these claims border on the absurd — such as women who argue that men and women’s hair styling price should be the same, even where a woman’s requested styling is far more complex and time consuming — but courts have shown a willingness to consider the possibility that price discrimination based on sex violates nondiscrimination laws. They can’t take up those sorts of cases, however, without implicitly legitimizing exactly the sort of thing that Langdon is arguing for — protecting men from cases where they come out on the short end of the stick, such as Ladies Night.

Whether for better or worse, get used to this sort of thing, because believe me, we’ve only seen the beginning of lawsuits like Langdon’s.

Source:

Man makes his move on ladies night. Tyler Gray. The Orlando Sentinel, October 10, 2000.