The Egg Lobby Wins Again

The unlikely culprit behind H1N1 shortages is out there, hiding in a chicken coop. Oddly enough, the reason behind the production bottleneck of vaccine has been a shortage in fresh fertilized eggs. This bizarre happenstance occurs due to the bizarre nature of the orthomyxidae (flu) virus that is the source of pandemic flu. Influenza A, the culprit behind the spanish flu epidemic of 1918, is the only human flu variant with the capability to cross-infect multiple species. This cross infection is the root culprit behind the potential of flu to break out of the normal seasonal infectious boundaries, and run rampant.

Viruses aren't like other organisms. In fact, its debatable if they are even alive. Once a virus infects your cells, it rips itself apart, reproducing its component pieces. Reassembly is random, just components bouncing into each other, making up for inefficiency with copious volume. These fractions include the RNA that makes up the flu's genetic blueprint. The problem is that if two viruses infect the same cell, say a pig cell, there is nothing stopping genetic fragments from pig-only flu from integrating into the genome of a human-infectious flu. This is where the danger arises. Humanity has seen just about every variant of flu that is human-infectious. Our bodies know how to fight these. They make us sick, but we beat them, and a good fraction of us are just immune to each variant. When a pig or bird virus integrates into one that can attack us, it become a type that we have never seen before. (a phenomenon known as antigenic shift)

This cross-species infectious pattern is why we are facing a shortage. The vaccine you receive, whether nasally or intramuscularly, was brewed up fresh by infecting the membrane of an unborn chicken. We do this in order to generate the same swapping effect that generates pandemic flu, but with the opposite effect. Growing the virus in the egg allows for less infective genomic fragments to integrate in, creating a flu virus with the same immune system ID as the pandemic variety, but with none of the infectious capabilities. This inactivated virus serves as our vaccine, driving an immune response without a risk of infection.

This process is arduous and difficult. Not only that, but the recombination is random, and ineffective. Imagine trying to produce the volume of vaccine necessary by farming eggs that may not even make the product you need. Now imagine doing this with a shortage of eggs.

Incredible Edible Infected Eggs. I suppose they ARE good for us.