Unsung Heroes of the Search for a Covid-19 Vaccine

Pretty obviously, a lot of human ingenuity goes into the development of vaccines to deal with the Covid-19 pandemic. The production of a safe vaccine is, however, remarkably dependent on a marine/ brackish-water, blue-blooded, arthropod that has been on the planet for 450 million years (https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/science-and-technology/2020/07/horseshoe-crab-blood-is-key-to-making-a-covid-19-vaccine-but-the). The Horseshoe crab (Limulus sp) is not really a crab (it's not even a crustacean) but it is the only source of limulus amoebocyte lysate (lal) used to detect contaminant endotoxins from bacteria at doses of one part per trillion. Without this test, no batch of vaccines is allowed to be used on humans (the endotoxins could harm or even kill). In the USA, half a million Atlantic horseshoe crabs are rounded up each year, bled to harvest their lal and returned to the sea. Some people are now becoming concerned that environmental challenges might threaten the future availability of lal.