Squalene—Is New Vaccine Additive the Worst Yet?

Squalene—Is New Vaccine Additive the Worst Yet?
by Heidi Stevenson
27 June 2009

Cover your arms, because a new and even worse vaccination assault may be upon Americans. Already approved to assault Europeans, an adjuvant—vaccine additive to increase its effect—called squalene is being added to boost the activity of the newer, weaker vaccines being developed because...well, that's interesting, isn't it? Why produce attenuated vaccines if the older varieties weren't dangerous? Hmmm...that's a question we're probably not supposed to ask. So, let's just just ignore it.

Squalene is a natural chemical. Your body needs it to function properly; your body even produces it. It's commonly purchased in health food stores as shark oil. That, of course, is how it's justified. However, a detail that's ignored is the crucial point. Ingesting squalene by eating it does not compare with bypassing the alimentary tract and injecting it directly into your tissues. Take, for example, stomach acid. It's very strong hydrochloric acid, and we can't live without it. But you wouldn't want anyone to inject it into your arm, would you?

Squalene enhances the immune system. It's thought that adding it to vaccines will help boost their effectiveness. At first glance, it sounds good and even seems to make sense. However, squalene has a history.

It should be noted that there is research that purports to document no connection between squalene and antibody responses. Note first that the study in question(1)limits itself to only two of the five types of antibodies. More egregiously, note that the study was not only financed by Novartis Vaccines, which makes the adjuvant squalene-containing adjuvant, but the author is employed by them.Squalene's Effects and the Anthrax Vaccine
It's been tested to see what happens when injected into animals. The results are, quite frankly, ugly. In many tests, mice, rats, rabbits, and guinea pigs have been injected with squalene. It has caused pathogenic cells in lymph nodes, and rheumatoid arthritis, lupus erythematosus, and other autoimmune diseases.

Gulf War Syndrome has devastated the lives of many victims. Though not definitive, since depleted uranium has also been implicated, the experience of the affected soldiers led them to believe that it was the result of anthrax vaccinations. Health problems they've suffered have included lymphadenopathy, rheumatoid arthritis, nervous system injuries, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, malar rashes (typically seen in lupus), skin lesions that don't heal, memory loss, seizures, Sjögren's syndrome, Raynaud's disease, chronic headaches, multiple sclerosis, and other conditions.


Although a common technique for evading responsibility is to cast doubt on another potential etiology, such as depleted uranium in this case, that does not necessarily absolve the first potential cause; it can certainly be that both are factors. In the case of Gulf War Syndrome, the US Department of Defense (DoD) went on a campaign of denial. They denied that they'd added squalene. For years, they denied and belittled the idea that squalene could even cause such problems(2).

Then, in 2000, the FDA announced that it had found squalene in the DoD's anthrax vaccines. Though the concentration is small, it's enough to result in the symptoms that Gulf War vets were suffering from. Since then, the DoD has admitted that squalene was in the vaccines, though continues to deny that it was purposefully put there. There is no doubt, though, that the DoD did 28 trials of vaccines with squalene. According to a report by the GAO(2) on page 2, "DOD officials stated that they considered, but decided against using vaccines with adjuvant formulations—including those with squalene—to protect Gulf War troops."

What's strange about this is the DoD's continuing claims that squalene is safe. Which is it? Does the DoD believe that squalene is too dangerous to use as an adjuvant, or is their claim that squalene is safe?

In the same GAO report on page 22 is a copy of a letter from the DoD to the GAO. It complains of the report's recommendation that Gulf War veterans be tested for squalene antibodies on their blood. Why? This has all the merits of stonewalling, just as the DoD's responses about squalene in anthrax vaccines were throughout the investigations.

Theory of Squalene's Action
The fact that squalene is a biological compound naturally found in the body is likely the reason it can be so dangerous when injected. When eaten or self-manufactured, squalene arrives in a normal way that doesn't arouse the immune system. However, if the immune system comes into contact with it in conjunction with the injury of injection, it can be taken as an intruder. This sensitizes the immune system into attacking squalene anywhere it's found, thus starting a process of self-destruction, the very definition of an autoimmune disorder.

Current Status of Squalene
Squalene is approved for use in the European Union, and is now included in the Novartis adjuvant called MF59. This adjuvant is used in the EU-approved influenza vaccine.

The FDA has approved fast tracking for development of influenza vaccines. Pharmaceutical corporations Sinovac, Baxter, and Novartis have all announced their plans to have their vaccines available by this autumn. All of them will use an adjuvant. Novartis, which manufactures squalene-based MF59, recently announced that it's weeks ahead of schedule.

The FDA has not approved squalene. That, however, does not appear to have any meaning. In May this year, the US Department of Health and Human Services ordered $289 million of Novartis's squalene-based MF59.

I'll leave it to the reader to guess whether squalene will be included in America's influenza vaccinations.