Fake News: J&J Vaccinations and Fetal Cells
By: Jenna Rose
According to Snopes, an article that was posted on March 11th, 2021 that stated that the coronavirus vaccine that was produced by Johnson&Johnson contained cells from an aborted fetus. The article refutes the vaccine due to the leaders in the catholic church up in arms about the alleged aborted fetal cells creating an ethical barrier for any followers of the religion.
This information, however, has been clearly stated to be false by many qualified sources. To start, the Johnson and Johnson vaccine was 85% effective in preventing serious illness and offered complete protection against deaths related to Covid-19. it also had a rate of 72% effectiveness in preventing moderate to severe Covid-19 cases. It was trialed in South Africa, due to findings seeing that it was most effective against the strain of coronavirus that was terrorizing that area, and it was 82% effective preventing illness in that area. According to Dr. Micheal Head from University of Southhampton, no fetal cells were used in the process of creating the Johnson and Johnson vaccine. Rather, like many other vaccines created throughout time, they took a modified version of the virus itself, and grew that in cells originally created from an embryo of an abortion that was performed many years ago. More specifically, these are called PerC6 cells, which are retinal cells from an aborted fetus in the Netherlands in 1865. Now, these cells themselves are not actually used in the vaccine. Professionals have figured out how to develop these cells into new stem cells called induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS stem cells. Dr. David Doukas head of humanities and ethics at Tulane University School of Medicine tried to level with the Catholic leaders on NBC news. He said most Catholics will realize that opportunities like this are rare, and they should take whatever is available first, but also said that health officials should make it known what they are providing, stating “Since a lot of things we do in life are faith based decisions, it would be prudent to at least let people know.”After further understanding of these findings were developed, new messages emerged from the Vatican. Their new proclamation was that people have a moral duty to protect themselves and prioritize their health, and in turn should in fact receive the covid 19 vaccination.
In todays world, with the internet being such a vital part of the way we obtain information, it is very hard to surf the web and find what is really true and what is not. make sure any information obtained from a site online is reliable and stated in more places than one. Also along those lines, our world today is speaking out on issues and voicing opinions more than ever, so nothing will be able to happen without one group saying its good and one saying it is bad, so at the end of the day, the most important thing when obtaining any piece information, especially stuff as important as this, make sure you are getting information from reliable sources.