Covaxin: A Vaccine We Can All Get Behind

For the last year, the main two COVID vaccines in the USA have been Pfizer and Moderna. Now, Bharat Biotech and Ocugen have applied for approval of their Covaxin vaccine by the FDA. Covaxin got emergency use authorization from the WHO in early November 2021.  Pfizer and Moderna have a remote connection to abortion via testing on fetal cell lines, but Covaxin has no connection in production, development, or testing. On top of this, Covaxin may be one of the most effective existing vaccines against the Omicron variant. Furthermore, for those who are cautious about new tech like mRNA vaccines, Covaxin is an inactivated virus vaccine.

Let’s review the basics on Covaxin, look at FDA approval, propose a response to the current situation of the vaccine, and look at the response by those who have objected to vaccines tested on fetal cell lines.

Covaxin Basics

Bharat Biotech Covaxin vaccine vial
Bharat Biotech Covaxin vaccine vial (CC BY-SA 4.0 Srikanth Ramakrishnan/BESTpedia)

Covaxin was developed by Bharat Biotech in India with Ocugen as its US and Canadian distributor. It is an inactivated virus vaccine, similar to flu shots and several other vaccines. We’ve been using inactivated virus vaccines for over 100 years. The Lozier Institute notes that fetal cell lines were not used in any of its tests. On November 3, 2021, the WHO gave Covaxin emergency use authorization. In this, the WHO (World Health Organization) generally recommend it for most adults except those with a history of anaphylaxis or who currently had a temperature. They also note it is reasonably effective: “Vaccine efficacy against COVID-19 of any severity, 14 or more days post dose 2, was 78%… Vaccine efficacy against all variant-related COVID-19 disease was 71% with an efficacy of 90% against Kappa, and 65% against Delta.” It is not quite as effective against the original strain of COVID, but this 65% against Delta seems similar to other vaccines. A real-world study gave Covaxin a slightly lower level of effectiveness at 50%, but testing health care works in the midst of a surge of the Delta variant may easily underestimate exposures, which would underestimate effectiveness.

While other vaccine manufacturers are working on new vaccines for the omicron variant of COVID similar to their original COVID vaccines, Bharat has said they suspect their original Covaxin will be effective and have started trials to investigate Covaxin vs omicron after initial observations seemed positive.

The FDA Rejects Covaxin Without Fully Explaining Why

In November, Ocugen applied to the FDA for approval. This would be similar to that granted by the WHO. They were denied without clear reasons being stated publicly. The Nasdaq site noted:

On November 26, news that “the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued a clinical hold on the Company’s Investigational New Drug application (IND) to evaluate the COVID-19 vaccine candidate, BBV152, known as COVAXIN™ outside the United States,” was not positive for Ocugen.

The Philadelphia Business Journal has more details, but its explanation still seems murky:

The FDA, according to the company, said it plans to identify the specific deficiencies that are the basis for the agency’s clinical hold and provide information to Ocugen on how to address those deficiencies. The company said it “expects to receive formal written communication with the additional information from the FDA and plans to work with the FDA in an effort to resolve its questions as promptly as possible.” No timeline for those actions was provided by the FDA or the company.

I think it’s legitimate to ask what the delay is for given that the WHO, with similar experts and standards, has approved it for a similar purpose. If this is a vaccine that would help all those rejecting a vaccine due to fetal cell lines to be vaccinated and it seems pretty effective and safe with broad international testing, why not allow it?

John Stossel did a video this week on a stalled approval for a COVID therapeutic already approved elsewhere. Stossel noted this was due to too much FDA red tape and think similar things apply here.

Side notes:

  • Bharat/Ocugen has also applied for it’s use on minors in the USA which is also on hold.
  • Bharat/Ocugen also applied to Canada for approval back in July.

A Call to Action

The USCCB has called vaccination “an act of charity.” Vaccination against covid has been repeatedly shown to reduce your risk of covid infection and death. I have argued long and hard that we can ethically take the existing vaccines, but not everyone has been convinced by these arguments. Some Catholics still have concerns about how currently available vaccines are connected to fetal cell lines. If this vaccine is approved, these people could be vaccinated without such conscience concerns. Thus, I think we should all write the FDA to ask them to approve this vaccine ASAP. Please email the FDA at ocod@fda.hhs.gov. This is the office that regulates vaccines. (You can also call this office at 800-835-4709.)

Here’s my letter I sent just before posting this, which can be used as a form letter:

Dear Dr. Peter Marks, Director, Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research:

It has come to my attention that you recently put the Bharat Biotech Covaxin vaccine on indefinite clinical hold. This vaccine has already been approved on an emergency use authorization by the WHO and by multiple other countries. Its safety and effectiveness have been thoroughly investigated.

I would appreciate moving this vaccine forward to emergency use authorization in the USA for two reasons. First, Covaxin seems like it may be the most effective of current vaccines against Omicron. This would be helpful for those in very high-risk circumstances like paramedics or certain hospital staff.

Second, I know many Catholics and other pro-life people who take issue with a vaccine that has any connection to abortion, even the remote connection due to fetal cell line testing. They are currently refusing all three vaccines widely available in the USA. Covaxin, however, has no such connection so they would not object. Thus, approving this vaccine would help them get vaccinated with a clean conscience.

[Some of you may want to significantly modify the preceding paragraph if you are in this group, changing it from third person to first. It could be: Second, I and many other Catholics and pro-life people take issue with a vaccine that has any connection to abortion, even if just fetal cell line testing. We object to all three vaccines widely available in the USA on this basis. Covaxin, however, has no such connection so we would not object. Thus, approving this vaccine would help us get vaccinated with a clean conscience.]

I hope that the approval of the Covaxin vaccine can be expedited so we can reach a higher level of vaccination and immunity to Covid, including the omicron variant.

If one is still unvaccinated, one can also write to major pharmacies or state health boards to say you will get vaccinated as soon as this vaccine is available. Writing multiple pharmacies in your area might even create a race to see which can get Covaxin to your area first once approved.

The Response from Catholics Objecting to Vaccines

With Covaxin being in stages of WHO and FDA approval in recent months, I would expect all those rallying against vaccines connected to fetal cell lines to be rallying for this vaccine. I would expect a call to action to write the FDA and ask for Covaxin to be approved so these people can vaccinate with a clean conscience. Something akin to the above section. As well, if your issue is the use of fetal cell lines, you might want to call up your pharmacy to ask when Covaxin will be available to schedule an appointment as soon as it is available.

I looked at sites that had published pieces supporting the idea Catholics might want to skip current COVID vaccines over the connection to fetal cell lines. I was surprised by how little was written [as of December 15, 2021]:

I hope this piece will alert these sites and encourage them to write about this opportunity for a vaccine without any connection to fetal cell lines like current vaccines.

I have run into a few people who told me they were applying for a religious or conscience exemption to vaccination based on the fetal cell line issue, who then also said they weren’t vaccinating for other reasons even if the fetal cell line issue was not an issue or resolved with a new vaccine. (These other reasons seem along the lines of standard anti-vax reasons that have been around for years or decades before COVID.) They clearly understood the reason they gave was not the real reason and intended to deceive whoever reviewed their application for an exemption. This is dishonest.

If our goal is a vaccine without even the slightest connection to fetal cell lines, we should not just be objecting those with any connection, but also supporting those with no such connection. I support having options without a slight imperfection even if those with that slight imperfection are morally acceptable to use. Doing only objecting, especially if one does not receive a vaccine soon after a vaccine such as Covaxin is available, might leave some wondering about how honest you were about why you were objecting. This in turn can make religious and conscience exemptions for other things harder to obtain in the future. We protect future religious and conscience exemptions by being honest about current ones.

Conclusion

The current COVID vaccines in the US are perfectly ethical to use: both the magisterium and the overwhelming majority of solid moral theologians or bioethicists have indicated this. However, some people have concerns about them related to the use of fetal cell lines. I’ve tried to convince them for a year, but they have not been convinced. Now, we have the possibility of a vaccine that meets the standard they set out: Covaxin. Let’s all support getting Covaxin approved so those who have objected to other vaccines can get vaccinated. Please write or call the FDA and others to move this approval and distribution forward.

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33 comments

  1. Why are you so obsessed with people being vaccinated at all? Other people’s medical decisions are none of your business. Perhaps you should put some of this effort into doing your God-given job – saving souls and obeying Christ “Go and teach all nations, baptizing them …….”

    1. Let’s see how this is “saving souls and obeying Christ.”

      My particular role in the Church is moral theology which includes educating Catholics on tough moral issues where a significant number seem to disagree with the magisterium and good theology. Helping Catholics follow the ordinary magisterium on moral issues is an important role in the Church. Helping people listen to the magisterium and follow her moral guidance is part of “saving souls and obeying Christ.” As a parallel, we should teach more about contraception with a lot of clarity (My article: https://www.ncregister.com/blog/we-must-explain-why-contraception-is-wrong) which will help Catholics live their faith fully and thus help to save their soul.

      Furthermore, part of “saving souls and obeying Christ” is putting in the groundwork for others to believe. The current stance of some Catholics creates obstacles for belief so I’m trying to remove those obstacles. If a person thinks Catholics are irrational or over-credulous, it’s hard to help them see that Catholicism is the true belief they should follow.

      Also, the Church has long understood the corporal and spiritual works of mercy as part of “saving souls and obeying Christ.” Instructing people on Church teaching falls under here and helping them to be healthier falls under here.

      Finally, I really wish I could focus on other aspects of “saving souls and obeying Christ,” but I’ve ended up becoming the expert in the public sphere on this and so I can offer something unique. I wish we Catholics would just all listen to the Pope and get vaccinated against COVID. That would be the best result.

      On the other hand, “Other people’s medical decisions are none of your business” is true about some things but is simply false about vaccination. (Most schools, including most Catholic ones, have required childhood vaccinations for decades.) Prudential decisions need to be made about Catholic events and the vaccination rate of prospective participants against highly infectious diseases is an essential question in that prudential decision. The vaccination rate can easily be the deciding factor in if it is prudent to run a parish retreat or similar.

      1. Wrong, Father! Expert????? Ha,Ha,!! How vain! You show your great ignorance and what a fool your are to tread into an area for which you have NO scientific or medical expertise. Vaccines have dangerous side effects, and yes, it is none of you business to try to force or encourage vaccinations, even if they are moral. Tell that to all the vaccine-injured children which are to found in every parish. Are you going to care personally for these children, even if you 80 years old? That is what the parents have to do. How charitable of you to such parents!!! Also, I question your expertise in moral theology, since you are in an order that was founded by a serial sodomite, abuser, a bigamist fathering children while pretending to be a priest, and a womanizer and embezzler of funds. What a great formation in moral theology you had!!! There are exemptions for vaccines at every school. In addition, are you being funded by George Soros and/ or Bill Gates to spew the pro-vaccine propaganda? It is time to be honest for once and tell the truth!!!!

        1. “You show your great ignorance and what a fool your are to tread into an area for which you have NO scientific or medical expertise.” I took a college course from a big research university at the beginning of the pandemic to make sure i was not ignorant. I’m not an expert as I don’t have degrees, but well over 90% of experts concur.

          “it is none of you business to try to force or encourage vaccinations, even if they are moral.” Actually encouraging people to do moral actions is an important part of a priests’ job, especially a moral theologian.

          “Tell that to all the vaccine-injured children which are to found in every parish.” These don’t exist in the vast majority of parishes. Vaccine injuries that are serious (long term effects or needing hospitalization) are incredibly rare.

          “are you being funded by George Soros and/ or Bill Gates to spew the pro-vaccine propaganda?” No. I take no funding from vaccine companies, Bill Gates, etc. Most of my money for writing comes from individual donors via Patreon. If you are so concerned about funding, you may want to look at this where a major anti-vax funder is also one making millions and millions off the alternatives suggested if you don’t vaccinate. We should ask about funding on both sides. https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/2019/10/15/fdc01078-c29c-11e9-b5e4-54aa56d5b7ce_story.html

        2. Your message does not provide any rational content that allows for a civil discussion. There is no reason to attack him on the basis of the behavior of the founder of his order. It is an ad hominem attack, and it is irrelevant.

    2. Great+Celt,
      I recently read the article from LiteSiteNews and I am surprised that a priest is so focused on getting everyone jabbed. Prudence is missing when advocating for an emergency drug.

      I agree 100%. My vaccination status is nobody’s business. I supported previous vaccination regimen, but not any more. I have developed a distrust in any vaccine because of this push for this one that has a 99.9x% recovery rate.

      1. Please show me a study that the average person in the USA has had at least 2.5 cases of COVID. Given that we have 849,500 deaths, a 99.90% recovery rate would require at least 2.56 cases per person on average. If you claim 99.95%, you’d need 5.12 cases per person. If 99.975, 10.24 cases per person.

        I’ve not seen numbers anywhere near these, but if you have proof, please provide.

  2. It is not about health , it is about controlling people . Even though there is a vaccine without aborted cell lines , then they will also require passport. No no and no. I will not comply even if there is a moral vaccine .

    1. I too sometimes get tired of obeying the speed limit, signalling lane changes, and the like. Waiting for signals to use a crosswalk.

      We, all of us, control other people in our daily lives. The question you need to ask are the purposes of the controlling behavior, and the extent of the controlling behavior. You push back when the purposes are unhelpful or the extent is unnecessary.

      Now obviously people will disagree on what purposes are helpful, and which are unnecessary. There are grounds for important debates and pushback here. But to push back solely against control means that a person becomes not just a rebel without a cause, but risks becoming a genuine maniac or sociopath.

    2. I agree with you 100%. I will not get a covid shot since it’s something from which 99.98% people recover and there are approved therapeutics.

      1. If 99.98% recover, you need to provide some kind of evidence that the average US citizen has had 12.8 cases of COVID. I’ve not heard of one person like that, yet that would need to be the average for a 99.98% recovery to be accurate given the number of deaths.

  3. […] (FrMatthewLLC.com) — For the last year, the main two COVID vaccines in the USA have been Pfizer and Moderna. Now, Bharat Biotech and Ocugen have applied for approval of their Covaxin vaccine by the FDA. Covaxin got emergency use authorization from the WHO in early November 2021.  Pfizer and Moderna have a remote connection to abortion via testing on fetal cell lines, but Covaxin has no connection in production, development, or testing. On top of this, Covaxin may be one of the most effective existing vaccines against the Omicron variant. Furthermore, for those who are cautious about new tech like mRNA vaccines, Covaxin is an inactivated virus vaccine. […]

  4. […] (FrMatthewLLC.com) — For the last year, the main two COVID vaccines in the USA have been Pfizer and Moderna. Now, Bharat Biotech and Ocugen have applied for approval of their Covaxin vaccine by the FDA. Covaxin got emergency use authorization from the WHO in early November 2021.  Pfizer and Moderna have a remote connection to abortion via testing on fetal cell lines, but Covaxin has no connection in production, development, or testing. On top of this, Covaxin may be one of the most effective existing vaccines against the Omicron variant. Furthermore, for those who are cautious about new tech like mRNA vaccines, Covaxin is an inactivated virus vaccine. […]

  5. The statement above: “Vaccination against covid has been repeatedly shown to reduce your risk of covid infection and death” is simply not true, according to at least 40 studies. According to the Brownstone Institute, “The gestalt of the findings implies that the infection explosion globally that we have been experiencing– post double vaccination in e.g. Israel, UK, US etc. –may be due to the vaccinated spreading Covid as much or more than the unvaccinated.” In this regard, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s (CDF) statement that those who refuse vaccination must do their utmost in not “becoming vehicles for the transmission of the infectious agent” now applies, perhaps even moreso, to those who are “vaccinated” and pushing these injections. Dr. Geert Vanden Bosche, Ph.D. and Nobel Laureate Dr. Luc Montagnier, among others, warned that these experimental gene therapies are a classic “leaky vaccine” and that vaccinating during a pandemic would cause the inoculated to force mutations and variants. Moreover, the fact that the majority of hospitalizations in the most “vaccinated” regions are of those who are injected suggests that this experiment is an utter “failure,” according to Dr. Robert Malone, MD., who invented the mRNA gene therapy technology and holds several patents.

    Moreover, the death rates from the injections themselves are completely unacceptable: “We know that 50 percent of deaths due to the vaccine occur within two days, 80 percent within a week…. We have independent evaluations suggesting 86% [of deaths] is related to the vaccine [and] is far beyond anything that is acceptable… It’s going to go down in history as the most dangerous biological-medicinal product rollout in human history.” (Dr. Peter McCullough, October 26th, 2021) Both the U.S. reporting system (VAERS) and the European system (EudraVigilance) show deaths now in the tens of thousands — and should have caused ever prelate, priest and pope to cry out for the experiment to end — not become its very promoters. The CDF’s guidelines, in fact, were explicit: “all vaccinations recognized as clinically safe and effective can be used in good conscience.” That has not been the case. And, in fact, any attempt to defend them as such is reckless given that the clinical trials for these injections haven’t even concluded, and won’t until at least 2023 and beyond. That means the safety data and longer term effects are not fully known.

    Rather than give the false impression that these injections are “safe and effective”, why not emphasize the proven truly safe and effective treatments wiping out COVID in India, Japan, and elsewhere with protocols involving ivermectin, quercetin, hydroxychloriquine, etc.? These, too, are substantiated not only in the aforementioned countries but in a mountain of studies as of 2022. In fact, given that these early treatments have always existed (and are censored by the mainstream media, whose funding is heavily from Big Pharma), the argument that the “remote” participation in the evil of abortion through using these injections produced with cell lines from aborted fetuses falls utterly flat. The CDF was explicit that “In the absence of other means” to stop the pandemic, these injections could be considered for the “common good.” That is not the case and, therefore, any bishop’s explicit endorsement of these injections is a violation of the Church’s own guidelines.

    Finally, given that a vaccine normally takes 10-15 year of clinical trials before being introduced to the market, any rush to vaccinate the population with an experimental drug is, again, reckless when the survival rate of the disease is over 99% for nearly the entire population. It is utterly shameful that the Church has not stood on these facts — in other words — has not “followed the science” but rather dangerous propaganda that is now taking the lives of thousands and injuring millions more.

    1. In the US and Canada, the unvaccinated are being hospitalized for COVID at about 5x the rate of the vaccinated. When you have a high majority vaccinated, the vaccinated will ha more cases, but what matters is cases per capita between the two groups. (For example, Canada has over 95% vaccinated over 75: now more vaccinated than unvaccinated in this age group are hospitalized. But his is because the group is ~20x larger than the unvaccinated group. the hospitalizations per 100,000 is about 5x higher mong the unvaccinated.)

      Please read up on VAERS from scientific sources pre-COVID. VAERS data needs to be verified and compared to a baseline of expected deaths to be relevant. For example, someone got a reaction into VAERS that they turned into the Hulk after a flu shot. Let’s show what the baseline means by simplified numbers: let’s assume that 5 in a million men in their 40s will have their first heart attack tomorrow; if then we vaccinate 5 million men in their 40s, and in the week following 175 have their first heart attack, then that’s not a worry (5 [per million] x 5 [million] x 7 [days]); however, if we have 250 heart attacks from that same group, that is an issue to investigate; you need to record all the heart attacks to be able to compare to a baseline. So far, ones looking at confirmed reports and comparing to baseline, these vaccines are quite safe.

      As far as treatments vs vaccines, I’m for both base don which are shown to be effective scientifically, especially with proper double-blind studies. I mean, using just therapeutics and not vaccines would seem to give big Pharma even more money as Ivermectin isn’t cheap and monoclonal antibodies are downright expensive. If even a fraction need monoclonal antibodies vs vaccines, Big Pharma makes more money.

      If you want to look at the timeframe, you need to look at what is done in that time. A lot fo it is getting funding, finding trial participants, waiting between research stages, etc. which were substantially changed with COVID. I summarize then link to the approval document for the chickenpox vaccine in this piece (https://www.patheos.com/blogs/throughcatholiclenses/2021/04/comparing-covid-vaccine-to-other-vaccines/): there is no aspect of human trials where the main COVID vaccines were tested noticeably less than chickenpox.

      1. In the US and Canada, people who die FROM THE VACCINE within 14 days are being counted as UNVACCINATED DEATHS. This is the reason why your figures are off. The vast majority of people who are being killed from the shots occur within that 14 day period. THIS IS DELIBERATE.

        Ivermectin is NOT EXPENSIVE AT ALL.

        Regarding the clinical trials, these are INCOMPLETE. The government gave the pharmaceutical companies permission to skip all the animals trials (in studies of previous vaccine candidates for a coronavirus, the animals developed antibody dependent enhancement, and the vaccine candidates did not pass the necessary tests for licensing). The Stage 3 trials are being done ON THE WORLD without informed consent. They won’t be complete for several years. In the Stage 2 trials, the controls were unblinded very early, so they will not get long term results for the vaccine candidates from those trials. This is unethical. Although you assert these candidates went through the necessary trials, they have not done so, and are nowhere close. They should not be released for public use until trials are complete and the candidates have been licensed. Failure to do so, and obtain informed consent is a violation of the Nuremberg Code, and of federal law based on the Code. And the sheets that go with the shots that are supposed to list the side effects and adverse effects are INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK, so there is absolutely no informed consent on the part of any of the recipients.

        Just so you know, I work with a group of experts with degrees in relevant fields, and we have been researching these shots for over a year. I spend hours daily doing research. My closest colleague has a PhD in bioethics with degrees in biochemistry and genetics. My next closest colleague is an MD, and an internist. We also receive the statements of numerous doctors who have spoken out, often costing them their jobs or licenses. From the position you have taken, it is obvious to me that you have not done research in the right places, because the truth is being suppressed. At the very least, this means you should make NO recommendation that people get the shots, but it would be prudent to advise them that these mass vaccination programs violate the Nuremberg Code, and encourage them to use their own best judgment.

        So your statement that there is no aspect of human trials where the main COVID vaccines [sic] were tested noticeably less than chickenpox is simply false.

        1. “Ivermectin is NOT EXPENSIVE AT ALL.” Let’s see. on the FLCCC site, they say 2x a week as prevention. On a site promoted by someone promoting this, they charge $9.95 a tablet. Over the course of a year, that’s $2000. That is expensive.

          “The Stage 3 trials are being done ON THE WORLD without informed consent.” That’s just outright false. Stage III has been done for over a year.

          Yes, there were less animal trials but this is increased danger for trial participants. They accepted this higher risk. Human trials show how medicines work in humans better than animal trials and animal trials are mainly to see if it is considered safe to test on humans. With human trials done, animal trials repeating the human trials would be rather pointless (animal trials for other apects are useful as for example, they did trials on pregnant animals before suggesting vaccines for pregnant women.

          You can look at the human trials for chickenpox vaccine vs covid vaccine. The length of the trials

      2. Thanks for your reply Fr. I’m not sure where you’re getting your statistics, but we just saw Alberta’s numbers and the majority cases are unvaccinated. I have spoken to nurses in both Saskatchewan and Alberta who are seeing a “good number” of vaccinated coming in. In Israel, the U.K., Belgium, they are reporting upwards of 85% – 90% ALL vaccinated. Keep in mind Fr. Matthew, that they are considering you “unvaccinated” with only one shot (and now in some places, without a third or fourth booster, which on it’s face, is utterly ludicrous). In Alberta, however, data showed a huge spike in deaths after only one shot — so this kind of statistical manipulation is malfeasance at best.

        With respect, you have completely misinterpreted how to read VAERS. It exists to provide “safety signals” — and they are going through the roof. Even without factoring in underreporting, which Columbia University found to be 20 times lower, the safety signals are screaming. Dr. Peter McCullough, who has worked on over a dozen data drug safety boards and has had a drug pulled from the market, knows VAERS and the process inside out. He points out: “A typical new drug at about five deaths, unexplained deaths, we get a black-box warning, saying it may cause death. And then at about 50 deaths it’s pulled off the market.” (interview with Alex Newman, The New American, April 27th, 2021). On July 16, 1999, the CDC recommended that healthcare providers suspend the use of the licensed RotaShield – a rotavirus vaccine – after only 15 cases of intussusception (bowel obstruction) were reported in VAERS. Today, there are nearly 22,000 deaths reported from the COVID vax alone and over 1.2 million adverse events. That’s more than all the years combined from ALL vaccines in the past 50 years. Regarding who is reporting, McCullough cites a study showing that “only 14% of all the VAERS entries comes from patients… the majority come from health care providers: doctors, nurses, others, and actually the pharmaceutical companies, the vaccine manufacturers themselves.” And a Harvard study confirms that only about 1% of actual adverse events are reported. It takes 30-40 minutes to fill out a form and several doctors have admitted they simply don’t have time to do this (a single neurologist in the U.S. said she has 2000 adverse events to report, and has only done two so far — [source: Steve Kirsch]). So the idea that a teenager is sitting there filling in thousands of superhero adverse events to skew VAERS is utterly bogus. Besides, you now have the reporting systems in Europe and other countries reflecting the very same red flags as VAERS, with Europe reporting over 36,000 deaths. But what is really being overlooked are those who are still alive reporting “serious” injuries, which EudraVigilance qualifies “as ‘serious’ if it (i) results in death, (ii) is life-threatening, (iii) requires hospitalization or prolongation of existing hospitalization, (iv) results in persistent or significant disability/incapacity (as per reporter’s opinion), (v) is a congenital anomaly/birth defect, or (vi) results in some other medically important conditions.” Of these, in Europe there are 1,540,852 as of this week and in the U.S. they are reporting 37,937 permanent disabilities in VAERS from COVID injections. Keep in mind, five independent analyses by Dr. Jessica Rose, PhD., Steve Kirsch, MSc, Mathew Crawford, Columbia University, and Thomas Renz show the numbers reported in VAERS to be anywhere from 20 to 40 times higher than what we’re seeing — over 400,000 deaths. This is a massive tragedy beyond anything we’ve ever seen — what McCullough rightly calls “the most dangerous biological-medicinal product rollout in human history.”

        So any encouragement by the Church at this point to participate in this experiment, much less forcing clergy and laity through mandates to be injected, is a “crime against humanity” and will go down as one of the gravest mistakes in ecclesiastical history.

        Ivermectin, before the pandemic, cost less than $5 for a full treatment. Supply, however, has been bought out and withheld by Big Pharma, so that has driven up the cost somewhat, though I know people who are still getting it. But until then, it was one of the cheapest drugs in the world. So too with the others. Quercetin can be purchased without prescription and is also inexpensive and works much like Ivermectin. There are are also several other effective and proven treatments which don’t cost nearly the fortune that these shots do. They are now over $60 for Pfizer and no doubt the rest of the pack aren’t far behind. Pfizer’s profits this year are now over 80 billion and their new pill to treat COVID costs $530 according to first reports (though they might distribute it free now because of their initial profits from the gene therapy injection).

        As for the trials, there is nothing to defend here, Fr. Matthew. It is a fact that these gene transfer therapies are under EAU (Emergency Authorization Use) and that the clinical trial stages are not completed, meaning safety data is still being collected. Moreover, the long term effects are completely unknown, though scientists who understand mRNA technology are warning of severe auto-immune diseases in the coming years. As Alex Berenson reported recently, Alberta was caught censoring the fact that hospitalizations of the vaccinated skyrocketed after the first dose. He writes, “the first dose of the vaccines transiently suppresses the immune system, as Pfizer’s own clinical trial data reveal.” Moreover, these are classic “leaky vaccines” that Montagnier and Vanden Bossche say are driving the variants — not the unvaccinated.

        This is an experiment, Fr. Matthew, a horribly gone wrong experiment. It is a violation of the Nuremberg code to mandate them. And at this point, given the clear red flags in the safety signals and warnings from the likes of Nobel laureate Dr. Luc Montagnier, it is an absolute scandal for you or any bishop to continue to promote these injections. “I am outraged by the fact we want to vaccinate children, because then we are really affecting a future generation. We are in unknown terrority and [then] proclaim mandatory vaccines for everyone? It’s insanity. It’s vaccination insanity that I absolutely condemn… There could be future side-effects that affect future generations as well, maybe, but most probably in our generation in 5 to 10 years. That’s absolutely possible. Notably, something we call neurodegenerative illness.” (Dr. Luc Montagnier, May 29th, 2021; rairfoundation.com; see “COVID-19 RNA Based Vaccines and the Risk of Prion Disease Classen Immunotherapies,” J. Bart Classen, MD; January 18th, 2021)

        1. ” have spoken to nurses in both Saskatchewan and Alberta who are seeing a “good number” of vaccinated coming in.” What matters here is cases per 10,000 or per million. When you have populations that are highly vaccinated, even with a pretty darn effective vaccine, you would end up with the majority coming in being vaccinated. In Canada, over age 65 is about 95% vaccinated. So if you had equal numbers of vaccinated and unvaccinated people over 65 going to the hospital in Canada, that would mean a vaccinated person had 1/19th the risk of that happening as an unvaccinated person. (95% of the population is 19x 5%.)

          The about 5x is what can be found in US data on the CDC site and looking at Nova Scotia’s I found similar odds in Canada. Yes, a slight majority of those hospitalized were vaccinated, but Nova Scotia is 85%+ vaccinated for those over 5 & has no pediatric hospitalizations at the moment. https://twitter.com/FrMatthewLC/status/1482859941396455429

          “And a Harvard study confirms that only about 1% of actual adverse events are reported.” It would be good for you to read the study and get the context not just repeat a talking point some people have taken out of context. No researcher believes 1% of serious side effects are reported (serious here being needing a visit to a doctor or hospital). But what is not reported is Oh, I felt tired and needed to go to bed right after dinner but felt better the next morning type side effects. I’ve known people like that.

          “Ivermectin, before the pandemic, cost less than $5 for a full treatment.” See other comment. That is false.

          “It is a fact that these gene transfer therapies are under EAU (Emergency Authorization Use) and that the clinical trial stages are not completed, meaning safety data is still being collected.” They are not gene transfer therapies and they are not under EUA anymore. You can find this with a simple Google search. I mean you find this by the very name, “therapy” is means something used to treat an existing condition, not preventative. Plus, gene transfer requires entering the nucleus which does not happen.

          “Moreover, the long term effects are completely unknown.” The main question about long-term effects is how immunity wanes, or the effects for the very few who had serious negative effects detectable soon after that vaccine. There is no substance known to mankind that can enter a human body, leave a human body with no detectable effects for many months, then have some dramatic serious negative effect. Yet, we have tens or hundreds of millions who have been vaccinated and the vaccine left their body many months ago. You would need to posit some kind of hitherto unknown biological mechanism (which would seem almost magical) to claim there is a long term risk for anyone who did not have a serious adverse reaction that was detectable in the short term.

          “This is an experiment” By this point that categorization is not applicable. I could see an argument for it a year ago but not now. “A horribly gone wrong experiment.” If that were true, we’d see ICUs and hospitals full of people with serious adverse reactions but these are minimal. They are so rare that a few blood clots and no deaths made them halt J&J in the USA for a while.

          I would suggest you look at both sides of the argument and not just trust one side. You should also examine why you are believing that side over the other. Here might be a good way to start off a better understanding of disease: https://www.coursera.org/specializations/immunology#courses

  6. Why should we urge warp speed on FDA to approve this? We want a safe, effective, not a hastily approved solution. And by the way why is the establishment censoring treatments in favor of the vaccine? There’s a whole lot of reasons to be super cautious. By the way thanks for acknowledging all of the current options have some connection to abortion. That means the prick may only be licit if there are no other treatments. But there *are* other treatments (and that premise is something even a Pope can be wrong on. Like the baseball scores)

    I strongly suspect part of the impetus for universal prick is that Ms-ery loves company and there are 100 million aborted women and men in us alone. Who would like to feel affirmed in their ms-erable course. What if you turned your efforts completely into getting your fellow priests to preach Humanae Vitae? Every week for 50 years for the 50 years it has not been preached. Then maybe you will save some of these tortured souls who are obviously torn up by their abortion. Remember what hv said about contraception could just as well apply to this prick… That if toleration is given it, it could then turn into a state mandate.

  7. Father, you surely must know the truth about fetal cell testing, that these cell lines were obtained by live dissection of fetuses gestation age 3-5 months. And this is how it’s been done since the 30s to produce the vaccines for polio and everything up to the present. You can’t create a cell line from dead tissue, it has to be living. These unborn people, I call them, were dissected alive, hearts still beating. It is a scandal and near criminal omission on the part of our Catholic pro life organizations and leaders that they have not known this, and if they did, why do they keep silent? Charlotte Lozier, PAL, USCCB NCBC, they all need to face this truth. We’re not talking one or two abortions many years ago, we’re talking a worldwide well heeled industry with direct connection to abortion that is going on right now. To date there are over 1500 fetal cell lines and more are constantly being created. Researchers partner with abortion providers and are ready to do the dismemberment within minutes. Read Monica Seeley’s two part reveal of all this in Catholic World Report last December. Exploring the Dark World of Vaccines and Fetal Tissue Research. This is from the devil. we can’t have anything to do with it or try to benefit from it.

    1. “must know the truth about fetal cell testing, that these cell lines were obtained by live dissection of fetuses gestation age 3-5 months.” This is directly untrue. HEK-293 was not obtained that way. THere is a different line that might have been and some people have tried to equate the two which is not really honest.

      “this is how it’s been done since the 30s to produce the vaccines for polio and everything up to the present.” Again untrue. The earliest human cell line is HeLa in 1951.

      “To date there are over 1500 fetal cell lines and more are constantly being created.” I’ve heard of less than 20 lines that and I’ve investigated this quite extensivley.

  8. Thank you for the thought-provoking content. This may be a “third way” to alleviate some of the polarization which plagues our societies over this issue. I would be curious how virologists and epidemiologists on both sides of the fence would response to your article.

    Also, you didn’t touch on the known risks of Covaxin. The VAERS data (and similar systems in other countries) has made amply clear (by straightforward comparisons to other commonly used vaccines) that rates of serious side effects and deaths associated with all three CDC endorsed vaccines, are unacceptably high. This is as large an issue as the aborted fetal cell issue for people of faith, and has to be addressed if this vaccine is to be approved and promoted.

    Neither did you deal with the ethicity of forcibly mandating experimental healthcare procedures. Yes, I know governments already mandate other vaccines, but they were years in the creating, and have proved themselves and been improved over decades. Here we are being forced to submit to experimental medical technology, one year in the making, which has already demonstrated a broad range of adverse results. That is the stuff of totalitarianism, and should be opposed on the basis of political principle alone.

    1. VAERS data is a place to start an investigation. You need to confirm reports and compare reports to a baseline of expected to make any sense of it. You can read things on VAERS data written before COVID and all the serious scientists agree.

  9. “I have run into a few people who told me they were applying for a religious or conscience exemption to vaccination based on the fetal cell line issue, who then also said they weren’t vaccinating for other reasons even if the fetal cell line issue was not an issue or resolved with a new vaccine. (These other reasons seem along the lines of standard anti-vax reasons that have been around for years or decades before COVID.) They clearly understood the reason they gave was not the real reason and intended to deceive whoever reviewed their application for an exemption. This is dishonest.”

    1. It is one of many reasons, doesn’t make it dishonest, rather not complete. But since conscientious objection isn’t covered, they may only apply the one (of many) reason that does apply to exemptions.

  10. ‘“Ivermectin is NOT EXPENSIVE AT ALL.” Let’s see. on the FLCCC site, they say 2x a week as prevention. On a site promoted by someone promoting this, they charge $9.95 a tablet. Over the course of a year, that’s $2000. That is expensive.’

    You’re missing some key historical facts, Fr. Matthew. Ivermectin was around $.05 a tablet in some countries before the pandemic. But when it started being banned and bought out by Big Pharma and the FDA to force people to be injected, that’s when the price went up. That’s not only price gouging but a crime when Ivermectin was shown to virtually stop the pandemic long before the mass vaccination began.

    1. In less developed countries, medicine costs less (but also usually has more issues with purity or contamination). Let’s look at the USA. April 6, 2020 is the last date Drugs.com’s price is archived before people were suggesting it for COVID. http://web.archive.org/web/20200406153032/https://www.drugs.com/price-guide/ivermectin

      They list $3.95 per 3 mg pill. Given FLCCC recommends 0.2 mg per kg, that’s only 15kg of body weight per pill. If we take the average US male at 90kg or average US female at 75kg (rounded down http://www.worlddata.info/average-bodyheight.php), they would need to take 5 or 6 pills a time making it $19.75 or $23.70 per dose and you are doing that 2x a week. so $4000+ a year.

      Vaccines provide more protection for less money and less side effects.

  11. I’m closing comments that are no directly related to the post & the points therein. (i.e. I’m leaving general vaccine debate as is in the above comments). I feel it is my obligation to correct misinformation posted on my site, I only have so much time, and have already clarified the most pertinent points above.

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