Christians have been advised to get Covid-19 vaccines once it is out as it is for their best interests. Director of the National Institutes of Health, Francis Collins made this assertion on December 3, 2020 during a webcast sponsored by the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention where ERLC President Russell Moore interviewed him.
The health director who is also a prominent Christian researcher stated that Christians should get vaccinated out of a love of neighbor. Furthermore, they should get information about the vaccine and not spread false rumors about it.
In the interview, Collins quoted Philippians 4:8. "I come back to Philippians 4: brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable, if anything is excellent or praiseworthy, think about such things. That would apply really well right here," he said.
On December 10, Collins said that federal agencies are holding a public meeting about Pfizers vaccine. This meeting will give Americans the opportunity to get more knowledge on the science of it. He also stated that researchers have gone through a series of hard work in order to get the vaccines out. In his words:
"I want to assure you as a scientist, as a physician, as a researcher, who's been in the middle of all of this since January. We have done nothing to compromise in even the smallest way, the safety or the efficacy standards for these vaccines. In the past, usually a trial for a vaccine was maybe 4 or 5,000 people. And these [Covid-19 vaccine trials] are all at least 30,000 people.
"Most of us know people now who have lost their lives because it is so rampant. And it's particularly rampant right now across the country, in virtually every state, every small town, every rural area almost no area is spared. And we have the chance for this to end and not to go on... If you believe that God gives us the opportunity to act as His agents to try to relieve suffering and death, then it seems like this is a pretty good balance of benefits and risks that you'd want to engage in and probably take advantage of yourself and roll up your sleeve."
Collins also made a call to Christians not to replace vaccines with the promotion of herd immunity.
'We potentially would eventually get the herd immunity, but there would be millions of us no longer around. The death consequences of that would be appalling We can do better than that. That's not a Christian answer if we love our neighbors."
Furthermore, Collins stated that the vaccines give users a chance to raise the bodys antibodies without having to get sick. For those persons who think that the vaccine is going to cause COVD-19, Collins advised that it is false information. More so, ways in which many persons will be immune to the deadly virus has to be fashioned out and there needs to be wide acceptance of the result of the plans. If not, all the efforts will be wasted.
However, Collins advised Americans to continue in wearing face masks until the vaccines become widely available.
"When you put on that mask, you're protecting yourself a little bit from other people, but mostly you're protecting them from you. You are doing the altruistic loving thing of saying, Just in case I'm that asymptomatic carrier that feels fine, but is actually contagious, I'm going to protect those people from me. That sounds like a Christian action if I've ever heard one," he added.
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