#175
Vaccination: Impact of Religious Approaches for Global Programs

As the United Nations General Assembly met last week, the COVID-19 crisis still dominated much of the discussion, with the sharpest focus on progress (and lack thereof) on vaccination, especially in poorer countries. President Biden’s summit on vaccination shone a spotlight and galvanized energies and new commitments. Religious roles in hesitancy, including views on mandates and exemptions, put religion in the spotlight far more than potentially positive roles in both advocacy and delivery. But within religious circles, leaders—starting with Pope Francis—are taking on the issues and contestation continuously and proactively. One report from Tennessee in the United States characterizes the tensions around mandates and vaccination as a “storm surge” but notes consistent efforts by some Black faith communities to press ahead on vaccination. Storms also rage around compulsory vaccine mandates in New York, for example, but the Vatican moved to institute mandates in the city state. A Hindu leader from Zimbabwe asserted that there is no Hindu objection to vaccination. In Cote d’Ivoire, a World Bank report credited religious actors as part of what appears to be a vaccination success story.
 
Studies from different world regions exploring the immediate but also lasting impact of the COVID-19 crisis on religious practices and institutions are emerging. A study focused on Sri Lankan Buddhist communities observes that the “suppressing impacts” of COVID-19 on religious activities “make for an especially sad irony. Restrictions on the practice of religion come at the very moment when people are in special need of religious consolation in the form of blessing, prayer, healing, and community support.” Of special concern is an observation on social divisions: “the epidemic has sharpened and deepened existing lines of inter- and intrareligious acrimony. Alongside the many acts of generosity and selflessness shown by religious leaders have been dangerous acts of scapegoating and vilifying. So alarming are these trends, on a global scale, that the United Nations has warned of a “tsunami of hate” that could follow the pandemic’s spread around the world... Yet religions also provide a key site and source for turning the tide of such hatred in Asia.” Another study outlines the way religious freedom issues within the Spanish Catholic Church color a generally supportive and positive approach to COVID-19 public health policies and other measures.
 
The variety of faith responses to many aspects of the COVID-19 crisis and especially the puzzling negative stance of parts of the evangelical Christian community in the United States continues to attract attention. Religious divides on COVID-19 run deep but seem driven far more by politics than belief. A study published in the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion suggests that the politics of evangelical Christians made them less likely to see the virus as a threat. “In the case of COVID-19, religion operated as a double-edge sword: Gathering together for worship services helped people cope with the stress of the pandemic, but gathering together also put people’s health at risk by helping allow COVID-19 to spread. ‘This pandemic is the unique situation where the types of things that are good for your mental health might be risky for your physical health and the types of things that protect your physical health might be pretty dangerous for your mental health,’ said Schnabel, an assistant professor of sociology at Cornell.” Another finding is that political affiliation mattered more than religion; politics even helped determine how much distress Americans felt during the height of the pandemic. 
 
The disconcerting divisions around COVID-19 vaccination inspired a story comparing the stark differences between positive reactions to the polio vaccine and the current more complex picture, written by Sandi Dolbee. In 1955, as the polio vaccine changed the picture in America “synagogues and churches held services of thanksgiving,” he reports. Jonas Salk, credited with developing the vaccine, was a national hero. Today we focus on sharp divisions which are colored by religious views. In an interesting note Dolbee explores the influence of Jonas Salk’s faith on his work. Young Jonas “was especially smitten with the Jewish obligation of ma’asim tovim, doing good deeds....Every day he prayed he would do something good for mankind. ... His brothers called him ‘Little Jesus.’” Salk later observed Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, though he was not especially religious as an adult. “He believed in a spiritual afterlife, and [a friend observed he] had a humble conviction of God’s power working through him.” Dolbee wonders how far similar motivations are an element in the evolving COVID-19 story. In his conclusion Dolbee quotes Francis Collins before posing a final question: “'Prayers get answered through people,' he says. 'Prayers get answered through science and medicine. We should welcome that. We certainly did with polio.' So that’s the tale of two vaccines — or at least part of it. If the triumph over polio was the best of times, will this be remembered as the worst of times?”