Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine Receives Backlash from Church

The Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine is now in the spotlight days after the FDA grants emergency authorization as the New Orleans Archdiocese declared to the Catholics that the coronavirus vaccine is morally 'compromised.'

Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 Vaccine Receives Backlash from Church

According to The Hill, the New Orleans Archdiocese asked Catholics to avoid it if there will be a choice as they cited concerns regarding the usage of cells with distant ties to abortion in the development and production of the vaccine.

In the issued statement of the New Orleans Archdiocese on Friday, February 26, the archdiocese shared that as the decision regarding whether to get a vaccine is an individual choice, they emphasized that the latest vaccine developed by Janssen/Johnson & Johnson is morally compromised. They also added that they even use it in the testing.

The statement also added that the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine somehow follow the same idea with numerous COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers that used cells originally derived from a tissue of an aborted fetus in the 1970s, but the vaccine produced by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech used cell lines only to test their vaccines, making the connection to abortion extremely remote.

As they argue, the new Johnson Johnson COVID 19 vaccine was granted for emergency use by the FDA over the weekend reported by NBC News. As such, the authors argue that Catholics in the locality should opt for the vaccines made by Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna if they will be given a choice.

Moreover, the decision and statement released by the New Orleans Archdiocese have the potential to impact the distribution of the vaccine as a number of houses of worship which include Catholic churches currently serve as vaccination centers, as so many faith-affiliated organizations. Meanwhile, it is still not clear whether any Catholic organizations that answer to the archdiocese are participating in the roll-out of the vaccine in New Orleans, the spokesperson of the New Orleans Archdiocese mentioned that the Archdiocese of New Orleans is asking all Catholic entities to distribute vaccines based on the ethical guidelines that they have released.

In addition, the spokesperson of the office of LaToya Cantrell who is the mayor of the city of New Orleans declined to make any comment.On the other hand, at least one leader from one of the Catholic entities has argued that even the vaccines produced by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna are 'produced immorally.' Bishop Joseph Strickland has stated that the vaccine makers also used cells that must be rejected as well.

The New Orleans Archdiocese also insisted that the decision is informed by guidance from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Vatican. However, the mentioned institutions have not yet issued any statement that discourages the use of the new Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

In addition, the spokesperson of the archdiocese stated that the decision was also informed by a conversation together with the National Catholic Bioethics Center. The said statement is part of the longstanding debate regarding the usage of what they refer to as the HEK293 cells, which can be traced back to their origins to an aborted fetus from the 1970s based on the reports, Religion News Service reported.