Catholic Church’s direction on Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine raises questions

Despite statements from the Vatican and U.S. bishops that the unprecedented global coronavirus pandemic would make it “morally acceptable” for Roman Catholics to take the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, the moral implications of using cell lines derived from an aborted fetus to test and produce the vaccine are being debated with some fearing that it might send a mixed message to the nearly 5 million Catholics in Southern California.

Johnson & Johnson, which got the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of its COVID-19 vaccine last month, uses fetal cell lines to test and produce its vaccines, unlike the Pfizer and Moderna, which use such cell lines only for testing and not to produce the vaccines. However, Johnson & Johnson has clearly stated that its vaccines do not contain fetal tissue.

Some Catholic bodies, including the Vatican-appointed commission on COVID-19, have urged people to take whatever vaccine is available to them to help protect against the virus, which has killed more than 500,000 people in the United States alone. But others, such as the Archdiocese of New Orleans, have deemed the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as “morally compromised” because “it uses the abortion-derived cell line in development and production of the vaccine as well as testing.”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement on March 2, saying that when Catholics have a choice, they should choose the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines over the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. When the first two options are not available, however, the bishops say it is “morally acceptable to receive COVID-19 vaccines that have used cell lines from aborted fetuses in their research and production process.”

This can be a confusing message for Catholics, said Richard Carpiano, professor of public policy and sociology at UC Riverside.

“In a time when there is an emergency with a real need for us to be considering our own safety and the safety of our loved ones and our communities, it is important for faith leaders to speak with a unified voice,” he said. “By adding these caveats, there is potential to sow a bit of confusion.”

Carpiano said the message he takes away from the Vatican, as well as Pope Francis’s statements about COVID-19 vaccines, is that it is the moral responsibility of faithful people to get vaccinated.

“People are so far removed from the act of the fetal cell lines,” he said. “It happened many generations ago. If people feel culpable as they take the (Johnson & Johnson) vaccine, they shouldn’t feel that way.”

Representatives for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the Diocese of Orange and the Diocese of San Bernardino all confirmed they are embracing the U.S. bishops’ recommendation that the faithful should opt for the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines if possible.

The Catholic bishops’ recommendation was a key factor in Orange County’s decision to give people the option to choose which vaccine they wish to receive, said Aaron Kheriaty, rector of the medical ethics program at UCI Health and a member of the county health agency’s COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force.

Kheriaty, a practicing Catholic, said that based on the bishops’ message, a devout Catholic would do their best to avoid the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. On Wednesday, March 10, Orange County officials announced that the Christ Cathedral campus, which is the headquarters for the Diocese of Orange, will host mobile COVID-19 vaccination clinics.

Clayton Chau, director and acting health officer for Orange County’s health care agency, said Thursday that the county will only provide Pfizer and Moderna vaccines at the Christ Cathedral clinics out of respect for the church’s moral teaching.

Kheriaty said while the Johnson & Johnson vaccine itself doesn’t have fetal tissue or cells, the vaccine is manufactured using cells from an aborted fetus. Kheriaty explained that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is an inactivated adenovirus vector — similar to a cold virus — which codes for the coronavirus “spike” protein. This virus is grown in the aborted fetal cells and harvested from them. All that material is then filtered off later in the process.

“So the connection to the fetal cell lines that were derived from an aborted fetus is less remote compared to (Pfizer and Moderna),” Kheriaty said. “It’s important to remember that the bishops did not say you cannot take the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. Their determination came because we do have alternatives right now.”

In Riverside County, residents will be able to see which vaccine is offered at the time they make an appointment, said county spokeswoman Brooke Federico.

“They can then opt to make the appointment or not,” she said, adding that this information is one of the first screens to pop up as people go through the appointment process.

San Bernardino County officials haven’t heard any specific concerns about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine on religious grounds, said county spokesman David Wert. He said the county-operated clinics exclusively offer the Pfizer vaccine. A majority of vaccines administered in the county are at non-county-operated locations, however.

“We cannot speak to whether any of those providers are offering a choice of vaccines,” Wert said. “The county considers the three available vaccines to be equally efficacious.”

Los Angeles County residents will not have the ability to choose their vaccine brand, as stated recently by Dr. Barbara Ferrer, director of Los Angeles County Public Health. All three vaccines “are extraordinarily powerful and, in clinical trials, were 100% effective preventing hospitalizations and deaths,” she said.

Mark Ghaly, who leads the state’s health and human services agency and publicly received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine Thursday at a state pop-up vaccination site in Baldwin Hills, said people should take whichever vaccine is available.

“Johnson & Johnson is going to be distributed widely across the state,” he said. “The FEMA sites did receive it earlier. But it is starting now. Yes, I believe this is a great vaccine like the other two. That’s why the message is to get the vaccine that’s available for you now.”

Staff writer David Rosenfeld contributed to this report.

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