For this week's spiritual thought, I've decided to go ahead and breach a sensitive topic, and to get really specific today ... the coronavirus vaccines and how they relate to our religions.
For over a year, Covid-19 has sickened tens of millions of people and killed almost three million worldwide. But now, several vaccines are becoming more and more available from Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, and others.
And now that we have these vaccines, it appears to be ending all the sickness and death, and we can already see a dent in the US. By all measures, these vaccines are truly miracles. Their efficacy is much higher than anyone could have hoped. Not only have study results been promising, but the US is keeping a close watch on results from the three vaccines currently available. Since they are approved on an emergency basis only, they are closely monitored for adverse side effects, and so far deaths and side effects have been very low -- similar to expected results from "placebo" (or in other words -- if no vaccine had been given).
Also promising are the low death and hospitalization rates post-vaccination. If someone catches the virus, it's only a moderate case and they are very likely to live. Lower hospitalization rates should also give our hard-working front-liners time to breath, which will give them more time to save even more lives.
These vaccines are being compared to the measles and chicken-pox vaccines -- so successful that I think it really could nearly eradicate this coronavirus. Much better than the flu vaccines that usually have hit-or-miss success.
I truly believe that these vaccines have been inspired by God, and the speed in which they arose may have come from all the prayers and fasting around the world.
But there's a catch -- which I'm sure many of you are already aware -- all four vaccines that I mentioned above make use of line cells (either in their testing or production) that descended from cells from aborted fetuses from the 1960's to 1980's. And most of our religion are against abortion, which then brings up questions of morality. On one hand, you have saving millions of lives and on the other hand you have babies being killed. So, understandably some are hesitant to get the vaccine.
When I first heard about this, it caught me off guard. I hate abortion, so I was very concerned, but then I learned more facts. There is more to the story. I'll present the facts here and let you decide for yourself.
#1) These cells are NOT coming from new abortions. There is absolutely no way that these vaccines are going to create a demand for abortions.
In fact ...
#2) These cells come from less than 10 specific aborted fetuses. And there were strict rules surrounding the original extraction of these cells, and rules today on how they can be used in practice. The four vaccines above come from exactly three of these fetuses.
MRC-5 comes from the lung of an aborted fetus in 1966.
HEK-293 comes from the kidney of a fetus (spontaneous miscarriage or elective abortion) in 1973.
PER.C6 comes from the eye of an aborted fetus in 1985.
None of these fetuses were obtained through abortions for the use of science. In other words -- the fetuses were first aborted, and only then were the cells were gathered. And once gathered, these cells can reproduce like crazy. This means it is not necessary to kill any additional babies to generate further cells.
Pfizer and Moderna used HEK-293 to test the effectiveness of the vaccine they created, but the vaccine itself doesn't contain those cells.
Johnson & Johnson used PER.C6 in testing AND production of their vaccine. It's unclear to me if there are actual PER.C6 cells in the vaccine itself, but it was at least used in the initial production.
AstraZeneca used both HEK-293 and MRC-5 in testing AND production.
The Catholic Church first came out to express support of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, as the cells being used to test were sufficiently removed from a vaccine receiver's culpability. They later came out with reservations against Johnson & Johnson (and possibly AstraZeneca) because the cells were used in production as well -- but at the same time, they provided an argument as to when you can't choose which vaccine you receive (due to scarcity), then you are absolved of any sin.
Now that these cells exist, I personally see very little immorality in continuing to grow these cells and using them to save millions of lives without having to kill any more babies. On the flip side I'd hate myself if I ever learned that I allowed my sickness to kill another person (even if I never got that sick). So, weighing everything, I feel it is much more beneficial for me to get my shot(s) sometime soon. Not only would I be protecting myself, but I would be helping to protect my family and strangers I may meet in passing and their families as well.
I understand that many of you reading will think differently, but that's okay. Just make sure you get the full story -- it may not be as bad as you might have thought.
For more information, you can start your own research with these information packets:
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