#200
Vaccine Initiatives; Sacramental Wine Producers Struggling

Engaging religious communities in global vaccination efforts is a continuing theme and challenge. In Japan, a mosque that serves as a hub for foreign Muslims turned into a vaccination site at the end of July 2021. Ethnic minorities with different languages and religions tend to be more vulnerable during disasters, such as the pandemic, due to social inequalities and can have lower vaccination rates. Efforts centered on the mosque to vaccinate those minorities removed barriers to treatment; they took gender into account as well as linguistic diversity to help aid in vaccination uptick.
 
In South Sudan, the Catholic Medical Mission Board (CMMB) found that many women were not showing up for vaccination as they were busy working or tending to family matters. CMMB decided to go out and visit the churches and mosques in the community to set up vaccine tents (South Sudan is 60% Christian, 33% animist, and 6% Muslim) in hopes of reaching more women. CMMB first held meetings for faith leaders, to answer their questions and convince them to relay messages to their congregations and through women’s church groups. Of the 80,000 people CMMB has vaccinated, 52% have been women, an uptick from about 25% from the pre-outreach programming.
 
In April 2021, 2,135 vaccinated registered voters in South Dakota were surveyed and presented with identical messages encouraging continued adherence to COVID-19 guidelines from a political, religious, or medical leader. Results showed that messaging from a religious leader was more effective than messages from either political or medical leaders. These results highlight how religious leaders as public health messengers can lead to greater adherence and vaccination and the crucial importance of coordination between faith communities and government and medical officials.
 
“Will the Communion cup ever make a comeback?” is a headline as in-person liturgies were suspended during the COVID-19 crisis. One impact is on sacramental wine producers in the United States, who have struggled over the past two years as a result. O-Neh-Da Vineyards in upstate New York has been in the business of making sacramental wine for over 150 years, the only one in the United States whose core business is producing sacramental wine. As churches closed then reopened, many opted not to use the communal cup any more. O-Neh-Da did not harvest in 2020 or 2021, and the 30,000 gallons of wine from 2019 still sit in cold stainless tanks. The vineyard’s owner draws some hope from the vineyard's long history, having survived past global tragedies like the 1917 Spanish flu outbreak, Prohibition, the Great Depression, and two world wars. "The grace of God will carry us through, and that's my operating premise," he said.

We take note that this update marks the two-hundredth since the Religious Responses to COVID-19 project was launched in March 2020. At least for now the unfolding narratives support a continuation! A series of webinars on the theme of “Looking Back to Look Forward,” reflecting on two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, had installments on March 1, March 11, and April 1. The final installment, “Listening to the Stories of Local Faith Actors,” will take place on April 29. Please register here to receive the Zoom link.