While COVID-19 Spreads, PETA Spreads Misinformation On Animal Testing

The animal rights organization People for the Ethical Treatment (PETA) is well known for attention-grabbing tactics.  Even in "normal" times, PETA can be counted on to push the envelope (or break through it entirely).  As non-animal humans worldwide suffer through the current COVID-19 pandemic, PETA has seized upon the crisis to promote its animal rights agenda, including the organization's long-standing opposition to the use of animals in testing the safety and efficacy of drugs and vaccines to cure and prevent human disease.  PETA has made several recent statements suggesting the coming demise of animal testing that are quite misleading.

On March 16, 2020, the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) announced that human trials would begin on a vaccine for COVID-19, dubbed mRNA-1273, that had been developed jointly by NIAID and Moderna, Inc.  As explained on the NIH website, the "spike" on the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus (the "S" protein") is