Written by: David Hood

NOTE: I initially wrote this privately for my church family, but I’ve been encouraged that it is worthwhile to share publicly. I hope you find it helpful.

The goodness and necessity of vaccines is, unfortunately, a deeply thorny issue in evangelical circles and has been for years. The COVID pandemic has once again brought this conversation to the forefront. In this short paper, I cannot possibly address every objection to vaccines in general, or to the COVID vaccine in particular. I’ve included at the end of this post several links that can help with that. Nor is the goal of this paper to tell you what to do. You should consult with your healthcare provider about what is best for you and your family. I simply want to explain why I think vaccines, including the COVID vaccine, are a moral good, and why I think getting vaccinated if you can is consistent with the heart and way of Jesus.

I want to start by saying that I recognize there are a variety of reasons why someone might choose not to get vaccinated or to wait. I don’t believe the unvaccinated are a monolithic group. They are often caricatured in a divisive and entirely unhelpful way in our society and we as Christians should avoid this. A lot of people have fears and concerns and anxieties that are very real for them. Needle phobia can be paralyzing for some. For others who are meticulous about what they put in their bodies, the thought of injecting a substance with ingredients they don’t understand or recognize can be overwhelming. I am sympathetic to young couples who want to be parents and are nervous about the possible effects on fertility, women who are pregnant or breastfeeding, and parents who are wondering whether the vaccine is safe enough for their 12-year-old or their 5-11-year-old. It is one thing to assume risk for yourself, and quite another to assume it for your child (I know several pro-vaccine adults who will probably wait to vaccinate their children). I am also sympathetic to people who have autoimmune or other chronic health challenges where it is not clear how their bodies will react. They might not have official medical exemptions but they are right to be cautious. They’re already suffering. And I would be remiss not to mention that there is a lot of distrust of government and medical authorities that isn’t completely without merit, especially amongst immigrants and black, indigenous, and Metis populations. I think we too easily dismiss people’s hesitation, apprehensions, and worries, and that has not helped this conversation move forward. Simply being annoyed or frustrated or impatient with people accomplishes very little.

However, I also recognize that there are a lot of people who are opposing vaccines because of stubborn individualism, they just don’t want to be told what to do. I have become deeply concerned about the posturing of a lot of Christians in recent months. It seems that many Christians are more concerned about their personal, individual liberty, rights, and freedoms than they are about their civic responsibilities and the common good. David French cites pew research and laments that White evangelicals are the least likely to say they should consider the health effects on their community when making a decision to be vaccinated. Only 48% of white evangelicals said they would consider the community health effects “a lot” when deciding to be vaccinated. That compares with 70% of Black Protestants, 65% of Catholics and 68% of unaffiliated Americans.

This is American data, but I suspect it isn’t that different up here. White evangelicals are the least likely to consider their community’s health concerns and needs in deciding whether or not to get vaccinated. That’s pretty damning. Is this the reputation we want to have? Does this reflect Jesus? I can’t really support this.

I also can’t support vaccine opposition that is steeped in denial, misinformation, pseudo-science, and outlandish conspiratorial thinking, or in the misuse of the Bible I’ve witnessed that likens the vaccine to the mark of the beast or Nebuchadnezzar’s golden idol that we have to resist bowing to even if it means being thrown into the fiery furnace of social exclusion. People who get vaccinated are not going to hell. They’re not demonized or “marked” or participating in the antichrist kingdom, and they’re not weak supplicants or “sheeple”. The vaccine is not a test of faith to see who trusts God more with their health. These are abuses of Scripture that have real-life consequences.

I am also concerned with the conflating of issues that are driving some vaccine opposition. For instance, you shouldn’t avoid getting vaccinated because you oppose vaccine mandates and are concerned about creeping totalitarianism. Those are separate issues. You can get vaccinated for the good of your community and push back against perceived government overreach and social-medical apartheid. They aren’t antithetical. The failures, inconsistencies, contradictions, and politics of our government’s response to the pandemic do not negate the reality of the health crisis itself.

All of this to say, there are sympathetic reasons to be vaccine-hesitant and there are reasons that are questionable.

Quite simply, I am pro-vaccine because I am pro-life. In the case of abortion, the mantra of pro-choicers for decades has been “My body, my choice.” The pro-life counter-argument to this statement is that it actually isn’t just your body. The unborn child within is an autonomous human being, dependent yes but a distinct life, a developing person made in the image of God who deserves to be afforded human rights and treated with dignity.

It is by this exact same logic that I believe Christians, especially pro-life Christians, should be pro-vaccine as well. When it comes to whether or not to be vaccinated, you need to consider that it isn’t just your body. It isn’t just about you, your life, your needs, your comfort, and your convenience. There are other distinct lives, persons made in the image of God, that your choice affects, possibly fatally. If you are unvaccinated and you become infected with COVID, you will carry a larger viral load and you will shed more virus for a longer period of time than a vaccinated person. There are people all around you that you could infect with this deadly pathogen. There are children who can’t currently be vaccinated. Adults who cannot be vaccinated or are being advised not to at this time. And even the vaccinated can experience breakthrough infections, which can still result in severe illness, hospitalization, and death for those who are most at risk and immunocompromised i.e. the most vulnerable of the vulnerable. There are also adults for whom the vaccine “didn’t take” and their immunity is essentially the same as an unvaccinated person and they aren’t necessarily aware of it. It isn’t just about you. What about your neighbours? Your vulnerable neighbours?

This is where I think there is a lot of confusion about the motive for getting the vaccine. I have heard some opposed to the vaccine say that the people rushing to get vaccinated are mostly doing so because they are personally afraid of the virus. This doesn’t make sense to them because most people recover from COVID. There are definitely people motivated by a fear that doesn’t necessarily correspond to the threat, however, most of the people I know who got vaccinated didn’t do so because they were deathly afraid of COVID. They did it for others. I got vaccinated, not because I’m personally afraid of dying of COVID, statistically, my chances of survival are very high, but because I minister to a lot of vulnerable people and I don’t want to be responsible for potentially infecting them with a virus that is deadly for them. My parents are vulnerable, my wife’s parents are vulnerable, members of my church are vulnerable, and people in the communities I reach out to are vulnerable. It isn’t about me, it’s about them. They were my motivation. In my mind, it’s worth it. It’s a moral good.

Indeed, the good that vaccines do is undeniable. Joe Carter of The Gospel Coalition claims that Vaccines have proven to be one of humankind’s greatest inventions, and the single most powerful and effective way of reducing disease and improving global health.

As my friend Jared Brock states, 250 years of data prove that vaccinations are a resounding success:

• We no longer have regular rolling rounds of smallpox, whooping cough, scarlet fever, polio, hib, cholera, and other deadly diseases that have killed tens of millions of people across time.
     
• Since 1962 alone, 4.5 billion virus cases have been averted thanks to modern     vaccinations.
     
• Tetanus mortality has been reduced by 96% since 1988.
     
• 17.1 million lives have been saved from measles since 2000.

Just recently, a new vaccine has been developed against Malaria. With an efficacy rate of only 50% against the severest cases, it is still estimated this could prevent 5.4 million cases and 23,000 deaths in children under five years old every single year.

With this data, I have to agree with Carter that, The harm done…not getting vaccinated is exponentially greater than the harm—both physical and moral—of using…vaccines.

It is necessary to ask, what is the alternative to vaccines? Think of smallpox. At one time, smallpox was ravaging the world. Brock paints a bleak picture: Sore throats, headaches, and difficulty breathing are the nice symptoms. Instead, disfiguring rashes cover most infected people’s faces, feet, throat, and lungs with pus-filled pustules. A third of adults infected will die. Eight in ten infants will die. At least 400,000 people will die per year for decades, and survivors will be marred with blindness and lifelong scars, driving some to suicide. But then an African slave brought “variolation”, an early form of inoculation, to North America. Now, with vaccines, smallpox has been completely eradicated. This is incredible. How can we not see this as a triumph? A moral good? Pro-life? Common grace? A gift from God? 

Should we rely on vaccines alone for good health, no, but are they an essential part of the fight against disease and death globally, yes. 

Interestingly, many Christians historically would agree with the conclusion that vaccines are a moral good. Carter points out, evangelicals have historically been at the forefront of promoting vaccinations. Jonathan Edwards, one of America’s most well-known theologians, actually died from complications due to the misadministration of a smallpox vaccine, yet despite this, Albert Mohler notes, evangelical Christians in the U.S. became some of the most ardent proponents of vaccines, understanding them as God’s gift through the rationality of modern medicine that reflected the orderly universe that God had given us and was a demonstration of common grace.

But what about the risks? Hear me, getting the vaccine is risky. I don’t deny that. I can’t definitively say nothing will happen to you. No one can. You might react poorly. Vaccine injuries happen. There are documented side effects to the COVID vaccine (albeit rare), as there are documented side effects to almost every medication. Some people can’t take Tylenol. Indeed, some of us are negatively affected by things found in nature. There are people who can’t eat shellfish or peanuts without getting severely ill or going into anaphylactic shock. The individual human body is too complex for doctors to be able to say, this treatment will have this result in every person who receives it. There are almost always unforeseen complications. But is the answer to eschew all medicine? To eschew the vaccine entirely? Is risk enough of a reason to not get vaccinated? Especially when the risk is low and when compared to the good that could be accomplished through mass vaccination. I don’t believe so.

French argues, taking risks (or enduring inconvenience) on behalf of others should be a cardinal Christian characteristic.

At the start of this pandemic, I heard a lot of Christians questioning the lockdowns and whether the most loving thing we could do was retreat to our homes and shelter in place. Many cited the plague of Cyprian, where non-Christians fled the city leaving their loved ones to die alone. The Christians stayed and cared for their dying neighbours. Many of them died as a result. The Christians’ fearlessness in that and so many other plagues throughout history has been an enduring testimony. Why aren’t we doing that, many asked. It’s a beautiful question. But now, some of those same Christians are refusing to get the vaccine because something might happen to them. What happened to the fearlessness in the face of death? It seems inconsistent to me that some who are opposed to the vaccine say they’ll take their chances with COVID, which endangers others because their personal likelihood of survival is high, but they won’t take their chances with the vaccine, which can and has saved many lives, even though the likelihood of an injury or adverse reaction is very low.

It’s a little less dramatic, but getting vaccinated could be the way we behave like the plague Christians, assuming risk for the good of the vulnerable. This is deeply Christian.

Listen to these words from Jesus and His apostles:

Mark 10:43b-45 Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, 44 and whoever wants to be first among you must be a slave to all. 45 For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life—a ransom for many.”

Philippians 2:3-8 3 Do nothing out of rivalry or conceit, but in humility consider others as more important than yourselves. 4 Everyone should look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others.

5 Make your own attitude that of Christ Jesus, 6 who, existing in the form of God, did not consider equality with God as something to be used for His own advantage. 7 Instead He emptied Himself by assuming the form of a slave, taking on the likeness of men. And when He had come as a man in His external form, 8 He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death—even to death on a cross.

Romans 13:9b-10 Love your neighbour as yourself. 10 Love does no wrong to a neighbour. Love, therefore, is the fulfillment of the law.

The posture of these verses is humility. Service. Love. It is other-oriented. Assume the low position. Lay down your rights and privileges and comfort and convenience. Lay down your very life. Think of others. This is what Jesus did for us, and thank God He did. In my mind, getting vaccinated is a gospel act. It is sacrificing (because there is a risk) for the good of another.

I don’t say the following to shame or guilt. I want you to be informed. It is important to know that if you don’t get vaccinated you are putting people around you at risk, those who cannot be vaccinated, and even those who are vaccinated, and especially the vulnerable.

Listen to these very personal words from a blood cancer patient: I’m no politician, and I have no stake in giving a “hot take” on a vaccination mandate. I don’t have an opinion on exactly how or what should be done, on policy. It’s not up to me. But I want to offer a point of information for some friends who are feeling defensive, threatened, angry:

First, take a deep breath.

Second, I hear your concerns. I hear the fear in your tone. But this is what you may not know: that others of us have a different kind of fear. Personally, I’m extremely grateful for the vaccine, which I’ve received, along with a booster last week. Yet, for blood cancer patients like myself, the vaccine is not fully effective. My safety does not just depend upon my personal, individual choice. It depends upon others around me. It depends upon you. When others get vaccinated, that makes a HUGE difference for us as blood cancer patients. Our mortality rates have been much higher through the pandemic. And in the rare cases where breakthrough infections do lead to death, it’s us, the immunocompromised, who die.

Please. We need your help. If you are medically able to do so, please get vaccinated.

Even if you dislike the president, the governor, whoever, there’s no way out of this — for people like me — unless you take a step like that. Your choice matters. And you may or may not agree with a vaccine mandate. But there is more going on here than an opportunity for protest, for defending individual choice. Personally, I, and others who are immunocompromised, have no choice. What may not kill you could (much more easily) kill us.

You are also allowing the virus to continue circulating, and are, therefore, giving it more and more opportunities to mutate. You are driving the diversification of variants, some of which could affect a wider variety of populations (which we’re seeing with Delta) and eventually become vaccine resistant, and then we’re back to square one. I humbly ask, is this wise? Is this best? What are we achieving? Over 4 million have died globally. More people have now died of COVID in the US than died of the Spanish flu. Our decisions matter, not just for us but for our communities.

All of this being said, I believe getting vaccinated is a personal medical choice and no one should be pressured, coerced, or manipulated. I don’t know everybody’s personal situation and neither do you and as I stated earlier, there are many reasons why someone might choose to abstain or wait. We need to have grace and understanding for each other. If you really, truly feel you cannot or should not receive the vaccine, that is your choice, but I would say you still need to do what you can to protect the vulnerable. Wear a mask. Keep distance. Wash your hands. Don’t go to crowded places. Abide by the best public health advice, and respect the boundaries of those who are vaccinated or those who are unable to be vaccinated. You can’t have it all. The human race is battling a pandemic, we cannot and should not expect to be able to live however we want. My rights and freedoms above everything else is absolutely not the way of Jesus.

I want to conclude with a conversation I had with a friend recently. He put it well. He said, what if it turns out masks accomplish nothing and that even the vaccine itself is ultimately useless, so what? It doesn’t make a difference. At the time, we thought masks helped, we thought the vaccine would help, and with the information we had we inconvenienced ourselves and sacrificed and took some risks to protect our more vulnerable neighbours. We stood in solidarity with them. With our city, our country, our world. We did what we could. Is that not a Christlike thing? Does this not honour Jesus?

I would encourage you to check out these resources as you consider what to do for you and your family in the weeks and months ahead, and always make sure when reading online that you rely on the best available empirical evidence and not on anti-science propaganda, anecdotes, celebrity non-endorsements, or unwarranted skepticism of government institutions such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Don’t scroll YouTube or surf the internet alone. Discuss what you’re reading/hearing/seeing with others. Make use of your brothers and sisters in Christ who are doctors, nurses, epidemiologists, statisticians, researchers, and scientists. I have throughout this entire pandemic and it has cleared the fog on many occasions. May God give us wisdom.

Christians and the Vaccine (an excellent website with loads of information from a scientific and Biblical/Theological perspective) https://www.christiansandthevaccine.com/

Why We Plan to Get Vaccinated: A Christian Moral Perspective https://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2020/12/73110/

Should I get the vaccine? https://ca.thegospelcoalition.org/columns/ad-fontes/should-i-get-the-vaccine/

Thoughts on vaccines and vaccine passports https://jaredbrock.substack.com/p/vaccines

Are Fetal Cells Being Used in COVID-19 Vaccines and Treatments https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/the-faqs-fetal-cells-covid-19-vaccines-treatments/

What Christians Should Know About Vaccines (in general) https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/what-christians-should-know-vaccines/

mRNA Vaccines Explained https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvA9gs5gxNY&t=2s

What You Should Know About COVID Variants https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/covid-variants/