H1N1 Vaccine Isn't Vegan Friendly

Sigh. Yet again the callous, shallow world has decided to mock those of us who are compassionate. I am a vegan, I'm pretty strict about it when it comes to primary consumption (meaning me purchasing something). I do consider myself to be a freegan, because I will eat things that are going to be thrown away or otherwise wasted. By not purchasing the product, I have removed myself from the transaction that resulted in the Animal's suffering, and if I let it go bad, I am increasing the impact of humanity on the planet. So, when I find out that every single flu vaccine out at the moment has egg protein (or in the case of the nasal spray, pork gelatin) in it, I get pretty angry.

I generally do not recieve vaccinations for flu, I can't recall getting the flu in my adult life, so I don't really worry about protecting against it. That said, I would probably consider getting an H1N1 vaccination of the disease truely becomes dangerous this fall. Unfortunately, that now isn't possible because I find out that the vaccines are made of animal parts. This is disgusting, I refuse to be forced into making a morally ambiguous choice, so I wind up at risk and put others at risk should the H1N1 outbreak get serious.

Sometimes, being vegan makes me really frustrated, not because of my choices, but because people have no sense of the impact of their own actions on the world around them. Imagine how many chickens suffered in factory farms to make the egg protein for the 250 million swine flu vaccines ordered by the US government...

This is what their lives look like:



Ok, rant over, back to real life...