At least 5 lakh sharks are likely to be slaughtered in order to develop enough doses of an effective vaccine and immunize humankind against COVID-19. This is the warning given by the Conservationists
All vaccines are prepared of an immunological agent called adjuvant—meaning “to help” in Latin—which makes the vaccine more efficient by strengthening its immune response. Vaccines produce more antibodies, with the help of adjuvant. The consumers can be at peace as it is also effective with longer-lasting immunity against the disease.
Squalene is one such adjuvant that is needed to prepare the vaccine for COVID-19. It is a natural oil that is present in the liver of sharks. However, it comes at the price of mass-murder of sharks. In order to obtain one tonne of squalene, 3,000 sharks need to be killed, approximately.
Now, the statistics given by Shark Allies, a California-based conservation group, has warned that in order to create one dose of COVID-19 vaccine each for every single person on the planet, about 2.5 lakh sharks will have to be killed for their liver oil. On the other hand, if a person requires two doses, then the number of sharks would be double, that is 5 lakh.
Now another finding says that Squalene is also found in the livers of many other animals, but sharks remain the major commercial sources for this natural organic compound.
Surprisingly, around 30 lakh sharks are killed every year so that human beings can utilize squalene in cosmetics, machine oil, and other products. As per estimates made by conservationists, the mass murder would be an add on to the existing killing of sharks.
British pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline has announced mass production of 100 crore doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, for which it has already been using shark squalene to make flu vaccines.
However, conservationists fear that this sudden increase in demand for mass production of vaccines will not only threaten the shark population, but also may eventually lead to their extinction as well. Conservationists remind us that these top predators do not reproduce in huge numbers.
Species like the gulper shark and the basking shark, which are rich in this oil, are already in danger, and if targeted further, they could be under some serious threat or become extinct.
In order to protect the shark species, scientists have been actively researching on a synthetic version of squalene made from fermented sugar cane.
3.3 crore people are infected so far and 10 lakh people are killed around the world there is an enormous, urgent, and ever-increasing requirement for vaccines against the novel coronavirus. The number of sharks killed for the production of the vaccine may even exceed the predicted number and continue to rise higher and higher.
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