With the news of the impending approval of COVID vaccines from AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson we wanted to briefly address the moral issues related to these specific vaccines.
We want to stress that the conclusions reached by the Vatican on the permissibility of using any morally-compromised vaccines do apply to these two new vaccines as well. So, each faithful Catholic who is considering receiving any of these vaccines should consider two points: the effectiveness of the vaccine and the degree of moral compromise.
Effectiveness: It appears that these two new vaccines are not more effective than from Pfizer and Moderna (and may actually be less effective, see also here, and here). At the same time, no vaccine has thus far been found to have more adverse reactions than another. Therefore, from a strictly scientific standpoint, Pfizer and Moderna would be preferred over AstraZeneca or J&J.
Moral Compromise: According to the Charlotte Lozier Institute’s information these two new vaccines from AstraZeneca and J&J are significantly more morally compromised than those made by Pfizer or Moderna. This is due to the fact that both AstraZeneca’s and J&J’s vaccines use abortion-derived cell lines in all three phases of production (Design/Development, Production, and Confirmatory Testing).
These two points argue for Pfizer or Moderna and against AstraZeneca or J&J asfaithful Catholics should, when able, choose the least compromised vaccine available.
–Please note that this is not medical advice and if there is a medical reason that a specific vaccine, regardless of its moral standing, would pose a risk to your health, please follow your doctor’s advice!–