If the United States sees an uptick in its
coronavirus
vaccination rate in the coming months, it might partly be thanks to a new vaccine without a connection to abortion.
Canada has approved a new
coronavirus vaccine
developed by Novavax last week. The company also submitted a request for emergency authorization use to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for its Nuvaxovid (NVX-CoV2373) COVID-19 vaccine on Jan. 31. That’s encouraging. This option could help some pro-lifers who have reservations about getting vaccinated do so. One issue causing coronavirus vaccine hesitation is people’s feelings about abortion. The three coronavirus vaccines on the market in the U.S. all
have some form of connection to abortion
.
Pfizer, Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson don’t contain stem cells from aborted babies in the vaccines themselves, but they used replicated fetal cell lines from aborted babies in either testing, developing, or producing their vaccines. But a Novavax spokesperson told Religion News Service late last week that there is no abortion connection to their vaccine. The spokesperson
said
, “No human fetal-derived cell lines or tissue, including HEK293 [Human Embryonic Kidney] cells, are used in the development, manufacture or production of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine candidate, NVX-CoV2373.”
Why does this matter?
Well, while no major religion is telling people not to get a coronavirus vaccine, many people find abortion morally abhorrent. While Pope Francis
called getting vaccinated
“an act of love,” others can’t stomach the thought of using something that exists because someone killed an innocent human being.
I’ve received three coronavirus vaccine shots despite being strongly pro-life. However, given that 10% of people in the U.S. think that coronavirus vaccines are against their religion, according to a December 2021 Public Religion Research Institute
poll
, a vaccine with no abortion connection may ease concerns for some of these people. Plus, many people are pro-life for nonreligious reasons; they just know what abortion is and find it barbaric.
If the
FDA
approves this vaccine, pro-lifers who don’t like the current vaccines will have another choice. If they want to take it, that’s good for them.
Coronavirus
vaccines work
. They’re not magic. They haven’t eradicated the virus, nor can they prevent all deaths. But the vaccines help. They reduce one’s chances of experiencing severe coronavirus symptoms and death. They also make one less likely to contract and spread the virus. Both of those are good reasons to get vaccinated.
Thankfully, coronavirus infection cases are declining. However, the virus isn’t gone just yet. This vaccine may end up saving a lot of lives of people who otherwise wouldn’t have received a vaccine.
Tom Joyce (
@TomJoyceSports
) is a political reporter for the New Boston Post in Massachusetts.
