Pioneering the Use of Fetal Cells to make Rubella Vaccine
After witnessing the devastating birth defects, miscarriages, and pregnancy terminations due to rubella infections in the 1960s, Dr. Stanley Plotkin worked to develop a vaccine to prevent such suffering. He chose to grow his vaccine virus in human fetal cells in an effort to avoid viral contamination recently discovered in animal cells used to make the polio vaccine. But his use of human fetal cells would draw criticism from various fronts, threatening to keep his life-saving technology from helping those who needed it.
Medical History Pictures produced and premiered the short documentary film, Stanley Plotkin: Pioneering the use of fetal cells to make rubella vaccine at the SCINEMA Science Film Festival in Australia in 2020. The film has been officially selected to screen on three continents, at the Raw Science Film Festival in the U.S., at the Science on Screen Film Festival in Galway, Ireland, and at the Vienna Science Film Festival in Austria, where it was awarded the genre prize for Best Medicine Movie.
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