Big Tobacco is looking at an entire world of people who are worried about their health issues with regards to respiratory. It’s not a good spot to be in, especially when their business model is built around factories that cause respiratory dysfunction. It’s not surprising that tobacco manufacturers would like the world to return to normal like all of us.
In the end, each Phillip Morris and British American Tobacco Plc have begun a study into a COVID-19 vaccine using their tobacco plants. However, while British American Tobacco Plc is using tobacco plants to produce their vaccine, Phillip Morris is working with an organization they have a significant stake in – Medicago; Phillip Morris is using an unidentified cousin of that tobacco plant.
They are using their plants to create the virus-like particles for a vaccine. The plants are utilized to create fragments of proteins that look like the virus, but they aren’t viruses. Since they aren’t viruses, they are unable to reproduce themselves or attack cells as a live virus would. Because they have a similar structure to viruses, your body will combat the proteins and build immunity against the virus.
This isn’t an innovative or novel method to test vaccination. It’s also a good method for companies with many facilities to grow the vaccines that they want to produce within these plants. It’s just one of the many corporations that are researching ways to develop vaccines or cures for coronavirus.