COVID-19 immunisation practices and religious-related hesitation
COVID-19 and religious-related hesitation
Keywords:
Vaccine refusal; Health beliefs; Religious exemptions; Vaccination ethics; Religious CommunitiesAbstract
Several vaccines to fight the COVID-19 pandemic have been licensed or approved for human use, and many more are in advanced stages of clinical development. Herd immunity is the key to a quicker exit from a health emergency. However, increasing numbers of vaccine refusals may reduce coverage rates and threaten existing herd immunity, exposing those who have not or cannot be vaccinated to dangerous diseases.
Even so, vaccination has long been the topic of various ethical controversies, moral considerations, concerns or restrictions regarding vaccination in general, the research design process, or specific vaccine ingredients.
This article highlights the main issues of moral concern about vaccines and summarizes the recommendations on new vaccines by religious authorities.
Knowing the results of the ethical-moral debates of different religious communities can help explain the importance and necessity of vaccines and improve communication between science and the community.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Transfer of Copyright and Permission to Reproduce Parts of Published Papers.
Authors retain the copyright for their published work. No formal permission will be required to reproduce parts (tables or illustrations) of published papers, provided the source is quoted appropriately and reproduction has no commercial intent. Reproductions with commercial intent will require written permission and payment of royalties.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.