As Covid-19 vaccines continue to roll out across America, many Christians are researching vaccine questions and concerns before deciding whether to get the shot.
On Feb. 26 the Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans urged Catholics to avoid using the recently approved Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine. That particular vaccine, he said, is “morally compromised” because it uses an abortion-derived cell line in development and production, compared to the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines, which used the cell line only to test their vaccines.
Beyond the ethical concerns, others question if the rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccine negatively impacted its safety. Medical authorities are assuring the public about the vaccine’s safety, pointing out that the mRNA technology used to develop the vaccines has been used effectively since the 1990s for immunotherapies. Still, scientists acknowledge that long-term effects of mRNA vaccines likely won’t be discovered until more time has passed.
Finally, some have asked if Christians have a moral and religious obligation to get a COVID-19 vaccine. That question may be more difficult to answer, but many Christian leaders point to the idea of “greater good” in their answers, that is, Christians must consider relinquishing personal priorities in service to others.
The COVID-19 vaccine, so far, has been shown to be 94–95 percent effective, with side effects that go away within a few days. Still, 50 percent of white evangelicals and 59 percent of black Protestants say they won’t get it, while the majority of the US population overall (60%) says they will, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.
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