WESH 2 Exclusive: Religion and the COVID-19 vaccine
So far, about 30% of Florida's population is considered fully vaccinated. To reach herd immunity, that number needs to be around 70%.
Central Florida’s vaccination sites are seeing fewer and fewer people visiting and it's starting to appear that everyone who wants the vaccine is able to get it.
However, there's a significant portion of our population who has no plans of ever getting the vaccine.
WESH 2 News spoke with different religious groups on their beliefs and why some refuse to get vaccinated.
“The government is not in control of me or my freedom,” Holly Meade told WESH 2 News.
Freedom of faith has been woven into the fabric of America by the founding fathers.
“We are creations of God and we will follow Him and we will do as He has called us to do,” Meade said.
Meade said she is exercising her religious freedom and trusting in God for her health, saying she doesn’t plan to get a coronavirus vaccine.
“I know that aborted fetal cells are involved in these vaccines and it's toxic, you know? My body is the temple. It's the gift that God has given me to take care of,” Meade said.
Aborted fetal cell lines were used to develop or manufacture COVID-19 vaccines, but health leaders say the vaccines themselves do not contain them.
“As a born-again Christian, one of the reasons our country was founded was so that we could have our First Amendment freedoms, which includes our freedom of religion,” Melissa Woodford said.
Woodford and other Christians are skeptical of the COVID-19 vaccine.
In a nationwide Associated Press survey, 40% of white born-again or evangelical Christians said they weren’t likely to get vaccinated, compared with the 25% of all Americans.
“Forty-five states have religious freedom exemptions, including the state of Florida,” attorney Mathew Staver said.
Staver is with the Central Florida based Liberty Counsel that fights for religious freedom. He represented Rodney Howard Browne, the Tampa pastor arrested for violating rules amid the coronavirus outbreak.
“He was arrested in a dramatic fashion for having church. And at the time, Florida didn't have a statewide lockdown,” Staver said.
Charges were ultimately dropped against the pastor. Staver said he’s seen many similar legal victories, including in the Supreme Court.
“Go back to the first amendment, the very first freedom is freedom of speech and freedom of the religious exercise,” Staver said. “There is no pandemic pause button to our constitutional rights, particularly religious freedom.”
Growing acceptance of a vaccine is happening among various faiths.
Christian scientists and scientologists who spoke with WESH 2’s Jason Guy said they have no stance for followers about the COVID-19 vaccination and that it is up to each person to decide.
Muslims have been supportive of vaccinations, saying the faithful getting the COVID-19 shot won’t break their fast during Ramadan.
“Going to a doctor, getting medical intervention is not a contradiction to faith that God will heal us,” Rabbi Sholom Dubov said.
Dubov spoke with WESH 2 about his orthodox Jewish faith and the vaccine.
“Our Torah teaches us that while we're obligated to believe in God and to trust that God is the one who heals us, at the same time, we are supposed to reach out to the most available scientific and medical information available,” Dubov said. “We don't see a conflict between faith and getting the most current medical information.”