TRIBUNE NEWS SERVICE • November 2, 2020
Tens of thousands of horseshoe crabs from all over the East Coast climb like small army tanks from the Delaware Bay and onto soft, sandy beaches each spring, ready to spawn. They also carry within them a highly-prized, copper-based, blue-colored blood that’s used worldwide for testing vaccines and medical devices for toxins. Up to 40 percent of their blood was drawn by needles before they were released back into the wild. Research has shown that up to 30 percent of horseshoe crabs tested can die as a result of the blood extraction process. The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to lead to major increases in the use of horseshoe crab blood, as the nearly 200 vaccines and over 60 injectable therapies in development for COVID-19 will all need to be tested multiple times for fever-inducing contaminants.