In the last months, new academic research on different aspects of the intersection between religion and the COVID-19 pandemic has emerged. The diversity of responses highlights the importance of sharp attention to context.

There is growing evidence of the roles religious beliefs play in attitudes towards vaccines and, more generally, towards COVID-19-related public and personal health measures. For instance, a study focusing on urban areas in Malawi identified particular religious beliefs, such as those who saw “signs of the Christian Apocalypse,” as factors associated with low perceptions of risk connected to COVID-19. In Ghana, a study surveying, among other groups, religious and traditional leaders living in three different cities, showed that 42% of them did not trust the vaccine and 57% were not willing to take it. Their distrust was, in some cases, linked to a more general distrust in the Ghanaian government and to the fact that the vaccine was manufactured abroad. Vaccine uptake in the Netherlands was found to be lower in communities with a high percentage of Orthodox Protestants and Muslims, but not Catholics. In the United Kingdom, research showed that 78% of 939 worshippers who voluntarily took part in a survey were willing to comply with public health measures such as wearing a mask and reducing their singing when attending a religious event. Among them, those who expressed the lowest level of acceptance were older people or people with underlying conditions. Finally, a study with data from Egypt, Romania, and Poland showed that fear of COVID-19 was associated with an increase in pro-health physical activity among Sunni Muslims, a decrease in this behavior among Catholics, and no correlation among Orthodox Christians. 

Research also showed how faith actors activated resources to assist their communities during the pandemic. For example, in the Philippines, International Care Ministries, a Filipino faith-based organization, responded to the COVID-19 crises by mobilizing its Rapid Emergencies and Disasters Intervention (REDI), as documented by a master’s degree thesis at the University of Waterloo. REDI works as a network of local religious leaders who understand their engagement as a complex and holistic provision of care, which, in this situation especially, includes both spiritual and material support. 

A few articles focused on the relationship between the state, faith actors, and other stakeholders in responding to the COVID-19 crisis. Some scholars have made the case that more attention and more research is needed to understand how Islamic practices can support (or hinder) COVID-19 state-led public health efforts, especially those targeting vulnerable groups, including refugees and communities in low- and middle-income countries. Among recent studies addressing this gap, one focused on Indonesia highlighted the importance of fostering positive attitudes towards the Ulema Council and its fatwa on religious activities during the pandemic. Through a cross-sectional study, it showed how this edict was key in allowing for religious practices to be carried out in compliance with governmental public health policies. At the same time, another study used the Indonesian context as an example to argue that governmental restrictions of freedom of religion, if based on scientific evidence, are justified by reasons of public health connected to the COVID-19 pandemic. In Malaysia, also a Muslim-majority country, a study on English and Bahasa Malaysia newspaper headlines argued that religious elements, in particular the notion of halal, were often cited and “exploited” to frame media discourse on COVID-19 vaccines that contributed to the amplification of religiously-motivated vaccine hesitancy.