You see, the vaccine’s spike protein is grown by genetically engineering baculoviruses to produce spike, and then infecting insect cells with the baculovirus to turn the whole thing into a spike protein factory.

At the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices meeting that I live-blogged last week, it was revealed that the Novavax vaccine was being rolled out because it could be marketed as a “more traditional” vaccine, since it was not made from mRNA. Novavax was to be directed to the unvaccinated, although only 10% of the unvaccinated, it was anticipated, would accept it.

The fact that no fetal cells were used in its development was claimed to be a marketing plus. However, thanks to a reader, it turns out that a human fetal cell line, (HEK) 293F, was used in the testing of the vaccine, as described in an article in Science.

NOTHING about this vaccine is traditional.