Vaccines:
From the Perspective of a Brother and Medical Doctor
The same God who created every living thing on this earth also provides mankind with the intelligence and the resources to make vaccines.
Read Time: 3 minutes
Faith and science are not mutually exclusive. Belief in science does not mean you cannot worship and believe in God. I know many scientists and physicians who share our faith.
Because we are all God’s creation, our bodily functions, or physiology, are also His creation. The same God who created every living thing on this earth also provides mankind with the intelligence and the resources to make vaccines.
Because we are all God’s creation, our bodily functions, or physiology, are also His creation.
A vaccine uses our own physiology to fight disease. Vaccines are tools, like antibiotics and medicines, that protect against disease, suffering and death.
Many things which appear to be new in the world are not. Did you know that the first coronavirus was isolated in the 1960s?
The HCoV-229E (or B814) strain was isolated in the winter of 1961. This virus was isolated by the CCRU from a group of boys (aged 12- 17) living in a boarding school. The boys were believed to be suffering from the common cold. This event was published by the CCRU in the British Medical Journal under the title “Virus Isolations from Common Colds Occurring in a Residential School” in July 1962.¹
The CCU, or CCRU, was a unit of the British Medical Research Council that researched the common cold until 1989. More than one type of coronavirus exists. Since the 1960s, six other strains of the coronavirus have been isolated: HCoV-Nl63, HCoVOC43, HCoV-HKU1, MERS-CoV, SARS-CoV, and the latest SARS-CoV-2 in December 2019. This last identified strain of coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 caused coronavirus disease 2019, or COVID-19. This brings the total strains of coronaviruses to seven.
The flu is caused by the influenza virus, which should not be confused with the rhinovirus that causes the common cold. Neither one of these is the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 which causes COVID-19. There exist at least 200 different viruses that cause symptoms of a cold. These are all distinct virus types that can cause the sneezing, cough, scratchy throat and runny nose we identify as a cold.
But what is a vaccine? Vaccines are a tool of the physician just like a pen is a tool of an author. There is nothing inherently evil about a vaccine, just like there is nothing inherently evil in a steak knife. Both can serve to do good and if misused can cause harm.
Should you take the COVID-19 vaccine when available?
Can you prevent cancer with a vaccine? Today the HPV vaccine exists to prevent cervical cancer. In the 1960s when the first coronavirus was discovered, cancer was a scourge on humanity. In 1972 in the US, oncology was established as a medical specialty to treat cancer patients. The cancer specialists called themselves oncologists because of the negative connotation associated with the word cancer. That is how bad the C-word was back then.
What a wonderful tool the LORD has provided in the HPV vaccine for humanity to use. Cervical cancer can be transmitted without having sex. HPV is mainly transmitted from person-to-person contact. Even if sex outside of marriage completely disappeared, women and little girls would still be stricken with cervical cancer. Nevertheless, the HPV vaccine could still prevent these cases.², ³
Should you take the COVID-19 vaccine when available? Well, that is totally up to you. I know I will and so will my family. The COVID-19 vaccine is merely another tool at the disposal of doctors. We all depend on tools to perform work. A vaccine is a tool for doctors, which has clinically proven data behind it that demonstrates efficacy against disease.
Antonio R. Howell, M.D. (Austin/Leander, TX)
1 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1925312/pdf/brmedj02979-0032.pdf
2 Eric J Ryndock & Craig Meyers (2014) A risk for non-sexual transmission of human papillomavirus? Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy, 12:10, 1165-1170. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25199987/
3 Sabeena, S., Bhat, P., Kamath, V., and Arunkumar, G. (2017) Possible non-sexual modes of transmission of human papilloma virus. J. Obstet. Gynaecol. Res., 43: 429–435. https://obgyn.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1111/jog.13248