According to Shark Allies, a shark conservation organisation, the vaccine for Covid-19 may come at a high ecological cost. Squalene is used in some adjuvants for vaccines to strengthen the recipient’s immune response. It can be derived from a range of sources including plants, but is most commonly harvested from shark liver oil due to the cost efficiency, with plant derived squalene being 30% more expensive to manufacture. 

Several candidate Covid-19 vaccines that have been proposed include squalene as an ingredient. It therefore became apparent that there would be a global spike in demand. One leading pharmaceutical multinational has already signaled they will manufacture a billion doses for potential applications in the vaccine. Experts estimate that immunising the global population with one dose of squalene would require harvesting (killing) 250,000 sharks. Experts have estimated that it would likely that two doses will be medically necessary per person, rounding up the cost to 500,000 sharks. Such a sharp spike in global demand for squalene could have irreversible consequences for already endangered shark species.

According to Shark Allies Executive Director Stefanie Brendle, Covid-19 has highlighted the problem with reliance on animal-based ingredients in manufacturing pharmaceuticals:

“It's something we need to get ahead of ASAP, because we are facing many years of vaccine production, for a global population, for many more coronavirus vaccines to come,” 

“The real danger is in what this can turn into in the future. A reliance on shark oil for a global vaccine—it’s truly insane. A wild animal is not a reliable source and cannot sustain ongoing commercial pressure. [And] the overfishing of sharks globally is already at critical levels.”

Shark Allies launched an online petition calling for regulatory agencies, vaccine manufacturers and distributors to implement more non-animal-based Squalene. It has since gained more than 70,000 signatures: Stop Using Sharks in COVID-19 Vaccine - Use EXISTING Sustainable Options 

This however does not necessitate any delay in the search and distribution of a Covid-19 Vaccine:

“We are asking for producers to continue what they are doing. There is no need to halt or slow down anything. We ask that they start testing non-animal based squalene ALONGSIDE animal based squalene for all uses … We ask that the pharmaceutical and the cosmetics industry replace their shark squalene with alternatives as soon as possible without affecting current vaccine development.”

Commentary

On the one hand, effective vaccines must be made widely available as soon as possible to save human lives, but would mean sacrificing the lives of sharks instead. This should be avoided as far as reasonably possible through using non-animal-based squalene as advised by Shark Allies. The current global pandemic provides a moral basis for regulators to step in and exercise greater control over ingredients used by pharmaceutical companies.

If it is indeed unavoidable in the short term, pharmaceutical companies should be taxed to subsidise conservation efforts and offset the short-term effects. Due to the global nature of the pandemic, there will likely be a long term spike in demand that could be disastrous for the already endangered shark species and fragile ecosystem they reside in. It is also unsustainable, as viruses can mutate, and new illnesses will always emerge that the ever-growing human population must be inoculated from.

The pandemic must serve as a global impetus to significantly reduce shark fining practices and the shark fin trade. It is estimated that around 100 million sharks are currently taken from the sea annually for their fins and meat. The relative necessity of vaccines contrasts sharply with other applications in luxury cosmetics and cuisine - there is no longer any excuse for continuing to slaughter millions of sharks for no good reason.

Courtesy of Christopher Jay

Main Sources: The Standard, Vice, Change