Should Catholics be pro or anti vaccination?

blog.theotokos.co.za

Stephen Korsman November 24, 2018

It was recently asked on a Facebook forum:

“Is it morally possible for a Catholic to be anti-vaccine? Or does our faith

teach us to accept such science?”

Pope Francis gives a vaccine to a boy held by Mexico’s first lady Angelica Rivera
during a visit to the Federico Gomez Children’s Hospital (CNS)

So this is my answer, as a scientist, as a doctor, as a medical virologist, as a Catholic.

My position is that the anti-vaccine (aka anti-vax) position is indeed immoral.

Vaccines and the huge benefits they have brought are a matter of science and history and
fact, and there is plenty of evidence for those who are willing to look at it. I’ll briefly
comment on some aspects of vaccine success and discuss some legitimate instances
where vaccines are inappropriate, and I’ll give useful links below; my purpose here is to
make a statement and not to provide several years worth of studying science on one page.
I’ll also touch on the valid problem of vaccines tainted with a history of abortion.

I’ll start with a really harsh heading. Harsh, but true.

Anti-vax is a medical equivalent of anti-life flat earthism

The anti-vaccination belief is the modern day medical equivalent of flat earthism or
geocentrism (which has its own growing Catholic support) or the idea that the moon
landings were faked.

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Unlike geocentrism, however, which is a belief that doesn’t cause death and disability and
suffering, the anti-vax position is the moral equivalent of:

preventing communities from having clean running water

preventing people from washing their hands after going to the toilet
banning antibiotic use. Antibiotics do more harm than vaccines, and have more side
effects – they can make you deaf, damage your kidneys, suppress your bone
marrow, etc … yet they have done far more good than harm. The risk from vaccines is
far less.

In fact, I would go so far as to say that the anti-vax movement is not even pro-life, because
the damage it causes in terms of unborn and childhood and adult death and disability is
significant, completely preventable, and therefore lies squarely on their shoulders.

Simply put, anti-vaccinationism is an ideology, a pseudoscience, or a “theology” as one anti-

vaxxer on the Facebook forum called it, and certainly not science. And given the damage
this ideology does, it has a worse effect on the communities most anti-vaxxers live in (the
USA and western Europe) than school shootings and suicide bombers.

The facts
Vaccines do not cause autism.
Vaccines have eradicated
smallpox. In the 20th century
smallpox killed nearly half a
billion people. Today it kills
nobody, thanks to vaccines.
Vaccines have almost
eradicated polio. Wildtype
poliovirus type 2 has been
eradicated; wildtype poliovirus
type 3 hasn’t been seen since
2012. Before the polio vaccine,
polio killed nearly half a million
people each year. Today? 22
reported cases in 2017. 27
cases thus far in 2018. Millions
of lives saved, even more
millions of people spared
temporary or permanent
paralysis.
Vaccines will, in the next decade
or two, eradicate measles. We’re
down to 100000 deaths per year
1977 Star Wars vaccine poster
from 2.6 million deaths per year
in 1980, thanks to vaccination. If
the anti-vax movement had its way completely, between 1 million and 2.5 million
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 additional children would die each year from measles. As it is, several thousand
children die each year thanks to the efforts of anti-vaxxers.
Vaccines are well tested for efficacy and safety in clinical trials. (Anti-vaxxers don’t
read those studies because they prefer their own “research“, i.e. reading anti-vaxxer
websites.)
Vaccines are safer by far than the diseases they prevent.
Vaccines are safer than driving a car, being a passenger in a car, or getting drunk.
Vaccines are cheaper by far than treating the diseases they prevent.
Vaccines form a very small part of the global pharmaceutical industry.
Pharmaceutical companies would benefit more from not making vaccines, because
then there would be more infections to treat, and more chronic illness to treat, even
with the smaller surviving population. Yet responsible scientists and doctors have
made sure that vaccine production and development continues, and that vaccines
are available as cheaply as possible especially to those who need them the most in
the developing world.

Don’t like those facts? Feel free to make up your own – it’s allowed these days. Just please
don’t say you “researched” vaccines. Be honest and say “ I read something on the internet
and believed it.”

Vaccine timeline, 2015

A note on anti-vax individuals and moral complicity

Anti-vaxxers, as individuals, can certainly hold their opinion without personal moral guilt if
they are sincerely taken in by the anti-vax mythology. People believe strange things. I don’t
think they can help that. Whether it’s a fear of moths, the belief that the earth is flat, or that
vaccines are evil, they can’t help that. Some experience or website spurred an irrational
thought or fear that they haven’t managed to get rid of. The Catholic Church is fully aware
of that phenomenon when it teaches that one of the criteria for an individual’s act to be a
mortal sin, the sinner needs to know that what they are doing is wrong. Anti-vaxxers do not
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understand the disastrous errors of anti-vaccinationism, and so on a moral level, they are
excused. That, however, doesn’t make the damage they do okay.

Side effects of vaccines

Vaccines have side effects. Of course
they do.

0.1-0.2% of children who get measles

die from measles. Fewer than
0.00001% of those who get the
measles vaccine die from vaccine-
related complications.

Any loss of life is terrible, and there are

few medical interventions without that
risk. It is terrible that any child has to Me getting a rabies vaccine

die from a vaccine, or suffer damage

from a vaccine.

However, vaccine side effects need to be put in the context of the disease they prevent, and
in the context of the risk they present. Every single available vaccine, individually and
overall, is safer than penicillin. Sometimes penicillin kills. That doesn’t mean we stop using
it. Vaccines need to be put in the same category as any other legitimate potentially life-
saving medical intervention.

People who should not get vaccinated

There are certain groups of people who should not be vaccinated with live attenuated
vaccines. Every clinician and scientist knows that. Immunocompromised people (HIV,
cancer, organ transplants, others) and pregnant women need to be cautious about live
attenuated vaccines such as the chickenpox vaccine at critical times during their condition.
If a severely immunocompromised person lives with family, those family members may
need to be treated differently too. On the one hand, they should be vaccinated with
killed/subunit vaccines to protect their immunocompromised family member. On the other
hand, sending the children off on a long holiday the moment they are vaccinated with some
live attenuated vaccines may be a fun idea … or they could be exempted – but rather
vaccinated to protect their endangered family member. Even this travel/exemption is over-
cautious, because most of the live attenuated vaccines do not shed from the vaccinated
person, and even then risks are extremely low. It all depends on the cause and degree of
compromise of the person’s immune system, and the vaccine involved. SCID – extra
cautious, avoid giving live vaccines to the affected child. HIV – depends, but contacts can
be vaccinated. Vaccines may also not be very effective in immunocompromised people.

Similarly, patients with allergy to vaccine components such as eggs should be managed
carefully. There are other legitimate contraindications for various vaccines. Legitimate
ones.
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These are not anti-vax situations, although they are certainly exploited by the anti-vax
movement. They are legitimate medical circumstances which make some vaccines less
safe at certain times. Such circumstances are rare, and should be discussed with your
doctor. As a medical virologist, I advise on these cases in a professional capacity, so I
know all about them, but do not email me or comment asking for advice – go to your
doctor.

Abortion-related vaccines
In the past, aborted fetuses were
used to create cell lines. Some of
those cell lines exist today, such as
the MRC-5 line, and are used to
grow viral vaccine strains in them.
That is morally problematic. We’re
benefiting today from the immoral
deaths of unborn children. I fully
support the push to create newer
moral versions of the vaccines that
currently use these cell lines, and
the Catholic Church does too.
A baby
That said, the Catholic Church,
while noting the problems with
these vaccines and encouraging people to push for more moral alternatives, clearly permits
their use by Catholics.

I will attempt an analogy.

A man gets shot in the head*. He is a registered organ donor. Is it morally

permissible to transplant his organs into others?
The doctors doing the transplant did not kill him, arrange his death, or wish for
him to be killed.
The patients receiving his organs did not kill him, arrange his death, or wish for
him to be killed.
The organs have a morally tainted history, but the doctors and patients
involved are not morally responsible.
*Such a man will likely not have his organs transplanted as his body would
likely wait for an autopsy.

An unborn child gets aborted deliberately, but not for the deliberate procurement of
fetal organs or cells, but cells eventually lead to vaccines.
The doctors giving the vaccines did not perform, arrange, or wish for the
abortion.
The patients receiving the vaccines did not perform, arrange, or wish for the
abortion.
The vaccines have a morally tainted history, but the doctors and patients

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 involved are not morally responsible.

Problematic aspects with the second scenario:

Researchers got hold of the body after the

abortion and harvested the cells, cultured
them for several generations, and got the
MRC-5 and WI-38 cell lines.
The problem lies with the initial researchers
and how they obtained the body. They could
have tried other moral ways of developing
cell lines. They could have used non-human
animals (where we get the Vero cell line
from, which is used for vaccine production,
e.g. polio, rabies). If they absolutely needed
a human fetus, a morally untainted option
would have been a natural miscarriage,
although potentially disrespectful of a
human body (many people legitimately
Homo neanderthalensis skeleton
donate their bodies to science, as well as
the bodies of their miscarried children).
It should also be noted it is unlikely that the researchers were thinking along the lines
of Christian moral theology, and unlikely they were gleefully aware of the moral
implications of what they did. As unfortunate as such activities were, they were likely
done with good intent (much like anti-vax propaganda), within a moral framework of
substandard quality.
Vaccine manufacturers, and others, have likewise likely had good intentions, not evil
ones. (And, by the way, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions ” means that
good intentions without action are worthless; it isn’t talking of good intentions that
happen to have moral problems when examined in a perfect light.)

The Vatican, the National (USA) Catholic Bioethics Center, and I all agree – those moral
problems do not mean that the use of these vaccines is morally prohibited. These are valid
moral concerns, but not valid anti-vax arguments.

The National (USA) Catholic Bioethics Center’s FAQ on the Use of Vaccines has the
following strong statement:

Am I free to refuse to vaccinate myself or my children on the grounds of conscience?

One must follow a certain conscience even if it errs, but there is a responsibility to inform
one’s conscience properly. There would seem to be no proper grounds for refusing
immunization against dangerous contagious disease, for example, rubella, especially in
light of the concern that we should all have for the health of our children, public health, and
the common good.

Points to be made here:

Following one’s conscience even if it errs – this principle applied to anti-vaxxers

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 means, as I said above, that they are not morally culpable for their error.
A properly informed conscience – unfortunately that is very hard to develop in the
anti-vax community because they have chosen to look to pseudoscience instead of
fact, but the NCBC applies it here to indicate that a properly informed conscience will
permit use of these vaccines.
“the health of our children, public health, and the common good. ” This is what vaccines
work to produce.

A 2005 statement from the Pontifical Academy for Life is a worthwhile read.

Pope Francis gives a child a POLIO VACCINE! (CNS)

It says (italic text that of Rome):

Moreover, we find, in such a case, a proportional reason, in order to accept the use of these
vaccines in the presence of the danger of favouring the spread of the pathological agent,
due to the lack of vaccination of children. This is particularly true in the case of vaccination
against German measles. [Footnote 15]

Footnote 15 (emphasis mine):

This is particularly true in the case of vaccination against German measles, because of the
danger of Congenital Rubella Syndrome. This could occur, causing grave congenital
malformations in the foetus, when a pregnant woman enters into contact, even if it is brief,
with children who have not been immunized and are carriers of the virus. In this case, the
parents who did not accept the vaccination of their own children become responsible for
the malformations in question, and for the subsequent abortion of foetuses, when they
have been discovered to be malformed.

So. Anti-vax “theology” leads people to “become responsible for the malformations in
question, and for the subsequent abortion of foetuses, when they have been discovered to be
malformed.”

Boy, am I glad I am not anti-vax. I wouldn’t want to be responsible for the deaths of born
and unborn children on the scale that the anti-vax lobby produces, never mind on the scale
they would produce if they got their way.

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Now go and read about the Dunning-Kruger effect. And then the informative and
educational links below.

Comparison between pseudosciences

Sites worth reading:

Vaxopedia
AntiAntiVax – The Truth About The Evils Of Vaccination
Vaccine Knowledge Project
Immunopaedia

Further information:

Catholicism
Pope Francis gives a vaccine to a boy held by Mexico’s first lady Angelica Rivera
during a visit to the Federico Gomez Children’s Hospital
National (USA) Catholic Bioethics Center’s FAQ on the Use of Vaccines
Moral Reflections On Vaccines Prepared From Cells Derived From Aborted Human
Foetuses – 2005 statement from the Pontifical Academy for Life
The Catholic Church and Vaccines
What religions actually state about vaccines

General
Vaccine ingredients
Vaccines: opinions are not facts
Debunking vaccine myths
Beyond the Autism/Vaccine Hypothesis: What Parents Need to Know about Autism
Research
Vaccines – Background of the Issue – ProCon

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 Vaccine Testing and the Approval Process
Debunking myths about vaccine testing and safety
How vaccines are tested, licensed and monitored
“Pro-Safe Vaccine” Doesn’t Mean What You Think It Means
Where are the Double Blind Placebo Controlled Randomized Trials about Vaccines
Pseudoscience

Anti-vax
The Effects of Anti-Vaccine Conspiracy Theories on Vaccination Intentions – Jolley &
Douglas, 2014, PLOS One, 9(2), p.e89177
The golden age of anti-vaccine conspiracies – Stein R, Germs 2017;7(4):168-170
Anti-vaccinationists past and present. Wolfe RM, 2002. BMJ, 325(7361), 430-432
And a fascinating response:
Evolution shows the immorality of anti-vaccination movements. Baschetti R.
BMJ rapid response.
Children who have received no vaccines: who are they and where do they live? –
Smith PJ, Chu SY, Barker LE, Pediatrics, 2004;114(1):187-95.
Who Is at Risk From Unvaccinated Kids? How Avoidance Hurts Others and Costs
Millions
What makes some parents fall for anti-vaccine messaging
Why anti-vaxxers think they know more than medical experts
Nine Questions, Nine Answers. – 9 stupid “unanswerable” anti-vaxxers ask, with
scientific answers
Really smart guy takes down idiot spouting anti-vaccination rhetoric. Awesome.

Morality of Anti-vax
16 years ago, a doctor published a study. It was completely made up, and it made us
all sicker. – Note: 20 years ago now in 2018.
The Moral Responsibility of the Anti-Vaccine Movement

Measles
How Many People Get Measles Each Year? – Note: USA data only
Timeline of measles
Paul Has Measles – free children’s book about vaccines and viruses

Chickenpox
Why the Chickenpox Vaccine Matters

Polio
Working toward a polio-free future: 2017 in review
The current polio situation
Polio – Sophie Ochmann and Max Roser (2018) – Our World In Data

Money
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Isn’t the pharmaceutical industry just out to make money?

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