A Coronavirus Vaccine Could Kill Half A Million Sharks, Conservationists Warn - NPR

Getty Images

Thank you to NPR for taking the time to cover our #SharkFreeVaccines initiative on NPR Weekend Edition Saturday!

“Once we considered that this is global, probably not everyone will get it, but billions of people will. The problem is that squalene as an ingredient in a COVID-19 vaccine will be seen as something that’s unavoidable. And then as it becomes tested, it becomes the normal ingredient and nothing else will be tested. Plant squalene, or squalene derived from anything else, such as algae or bacteria or synthetically, is basically the same compound and it can be used. Really our ask if that we start testing the alternatives, because long-term we cannot rely on a wild animal resource for a global need of anything.”