ALLENTOWN DIOCESE JOINS CHURCH LEADERS IN DENOUNCING J&J VACCINE,

Abortion-derived cell lines used in product’s testing, production

With Gov. Tom Wolf announcing plans to distribute the new Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine to school employees, the Diocese of Allentown has joined Catholic leaders nationwide in calling the vaccine “morally compromised” for using abortion-derived cell lines in testing and production.

A statement in the Diocese newsletter Wednesday cites the position of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which raises concerns “about the moral permissibility of using vaccines developed, tested and/or produced with the help of abortion-derived cell lines.”

Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine “is morally compromised ... and should not be accepted by Catholics if other choices are available,” Bishop Alfred Schlert said in the newsletter statement. “Other vaccines are available and are more morally acceptable.”

While the Pfizer and Moderna pharmaceutical companies used abortion-derived cell lines in testing but not producing their COVID vaccines, Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine used these cell lines in production as well as testing, the conference said.

While not denying it uses these cell lines, Johnson & Johnson said it uses no fetal tissue.

A cell line is defined as “a cell culture developed from a single cell and therefore consisting of cells with a uniform genetic makeup.”

“Immortalised” cell lines are used in experimental vaccine development due to mutations enabling them to continue dividing, which they couldn’t do under normal circumstances. These cell lines come from tumors or, in a few cases, stem cells taken from aborted fetuses, according to the Cell Biology International journal.

When asked how abortion-derived cell lines differ from fetal tissue and why the company finds it acceptable to use these cell lines in vaccine testing and production, Johnson & Johnson spokesperson Lisa Cannellos released the following statement Wednesday: “In developing our vaccine, we have held ourselves to the highest bioethical standards and guidelines. There is no fetal tissue in the vaccine.”

“Our single-shot vaccine uses an inactivated non-infective adenovirus vector — similar to a cold virus — that codes for the coronavirus ‘spike’ [S] protein,” the statement says.

Pfizer and Moderna did not respond Wednesday to messages seeking comment about using abortion-derived cell lines in testing their vaccines.

“If one can choose among equally safe and effective COVID19 vaccines, the one that is least morally objectionable should be chosen,” the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops said.

Wolf said the goal is to “offer every public and private school worker a vaccine.”