All of us will soon be making a decision on whether we will be receiving one of the new COVID-19 vaccines. The goal of NCER is to provide knowledge and understanding of these vaccines, which will give us power to make ethical choices, giving us peace of mind and heart for ourselves and our families.
The Pfizer COVID vaccine has just been approved for emergency use, and Healthcare workers are the first in line to receive it. Two more, developed by Moderna and Astrazeneca, will likely be approved in the United States within days. Pfizer and Moderna have developed vaccines utilizing a technology that has before now never been used successfully on humans. Aborted fetal cell lines were not used in the development or production of these particular vaccines. However, they were used in the laboratory testing for efficacy. This is unfortunate because other successful substrates are available. Instead, synthetic messenger RNA(mRNA) is created and injected. This is the blueprint for your body to make proteins. At this time, it is believed the synthetic mRNA it does not enter your cell nucleus and therefore does not change your DNA. It does bypass your DNA by changing the kind of proteins that your body is genetically designed to create, at least for a short time. The synthetic mRNA provides instructions to make the coronavirus spike, eliciting an immune response. The long term safety of these mRNA vaccines is unknown. The Pfizer clinical trial was not powered to look at the vaccine’s effect on hospitalizations or deaths. The trial also did not prove that those vaccinated won’t be contagious. The Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines are the most ethical choice because they don’t contain fetal material.
The third vaccine, from Astrazeneca, uses aborted fetal cell line HEK293, created in 1973 from the kidney of an aborted human fetus. This cell line is used in the development, production and testing of the vaccine. Therefore the AstraZeneca vaccine may contain actual fetal DNA/mRNA fragments along with the weakened virus. NCER opposes the use of human fetal tissue or cell lines taken from abortions because this is complicit with the immoral act of purposely destroying a human life. Not only is this unethical, but there is evidence it could trigger long term autoimmune responses because our bodies see the combination of fetal human DNA and the virus as a biological enemy. Although the clinical data has not been released yet, Astrazeneca says it’s vaccine showed prevention from getting the COVID infection and prevented transmissibility to others.
All three COVID vaccines have been developed, produced and brought to trial in “warp speed” : 10 months instead of the average 10 years. Historically, animal testing for drug safety has been conducted prior to testing in humans. For this vaccine, animal and human testing have been done simultaneously. There are three official phases to drug development (testing for best dose, safety, and then comparison to the current standard of care), and the findings of each phase are examined thoroughly before moving on to the next phase. In a race to the finish, this protocol has not been followed in the development of these COVID-19 vaccines. Even though it is now available to the public, the Pfizer vaccine clinical trial data was just released a few days ago. It has not been peer reviewed, as is customary before the FDA approves use. All three vaccines require a series of 2 injections, and their effects may not last more than a few months.