Christianity and the Research for a COVID-19 Vaccine

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It's something that Christians have been seriously misled by anti-vaccine protesters. Some of the worst sites for Christians to visit are Jesus-is-Savior and Reformation Online. Both their webmasters (David J. Stewart and Patrick Scrivener) are fond of conspiracy theories and half-truths. Stewart has made a claim that vaccines supposedly kill and Scrivener has even called Edward Jenner a "Jesuit". Not surprisingly Stewart is writing half-truths about the Coronavirus. I started having doubts about vaccination because of Stewart and Scrivener. The recent one has the scare that the COVID-19 vaccine will become the "Mark of the Beast" which might cause unnecessary panic yet again. I remembered how membership shopping was considered to be the Mark of the Beast. Then credit cards and I don't know what's next. I do believe that a lot of stuff today are gateways to the Mark of the Beast but they are not the same thing. Did membership-only groceries owned by private businessmen require you to pledge allegiance to the world government that's not even complete until the Rapture? What evidences do conspiracy theorists have that Proctor & Gamble and other related companies were part of the Illuminati? The same question can be asked about vaccination and the Mark of the Beast.

For starters, do you know how the process of vaccination works? Creation Ministries International has a useful article called "CMI, vaccines, and vaccination" which would probably drive both Stewart and Scrivener screaming if they ever read it. Here is how the article defines vaccination though I suggest reading the whole article too:
Thus, the main principle of vaccination is to train the adaptive immune system with dead or highly weakened germs, to give it ‘target practice’. As a result, if it encounters the live pathogen, it is ready for it. Because the germ has little chance to multiply to dangerous levels, a vaccinated person usually doesn’t develop an illness at all or gets it much less severely. 
So, vaccination has saved millions of lives, and prevented severe injuries in millions more. One of our own senior staff was a practising medical doctor for many years and has seen firsthand the baneful effects and damage caused by people contracting such preventable diseases, including brain damage, in unvaccinated children. The same principle applies to vaccines based on toxoids, i.e. deactivated toxins, such as in the tetanus and diphtheria vaccines, which train the immune system to attack the toxins quickly. 
A newer type, recombinant vaccines, uses genetic engineering to make a protein on the outside of the germ that the immune system targets. This combines the gene for this protein into another virus, lets that multiply, say in insect cells, then the protein is harvested, and used to make the vaccine that contains no virus genetic material, live or dead. One type of influenza vaccine is recombinant, and can be used for people allergic to eggs, and the Hepatitis B and HVP vaccines are also recombinant, as is the newer and much more effective shingles vaccine Shingrix. Conjugate vaccines are made in a similar way, but use recombinant technology to combine two or more pieces from the coat of a disease-causing bacterium, such as Pneumococcus, which train the immune system without needing whole bacterial cells.

One Fundamental Baptist preacher still worth respecting namely David W. Cloud of Way of Life Literature has also documented about vaccinations. Cloud's three articles worth reading are "Rabies, Before and After the Vaccine", "Tetanus Before and After Vaccine", and "Typhoid Before and After Vaccine" all document the collapse of infection for rabies, tetanus, and typhoid thanks to the vaccine. I had fun reading the articles because they totally refute the fundamentalist craziness of Stewart.

While unsafe vaccines do exist but there are safe vaccines that have saved lives. Any Christian with basic scientific knowledge has to wonder where Stewart and Scrivener got their anti-vaccine ideas. Vaccines can only kill if they're unsafe. Otherwise, any vaccine that has been proven safe and effective should be administered according to medical instructions. For example, some vaccines were meant only for those who recovered from the disease while others can be administered to healthy people. Any vaccine that is proven safe and effective won't directly cause autism. Also, the objections regarding vaccines containing certain deadly poisons is that it goes against the rule of toxicology. A vaccine can only be unsafe if there are unsafe doses of ethylmercury, formaldehyde, and aluminum. Yes, a vaccine can kill if the amounts of those materials just mentioned exceeding the safe amounts which are meant to be disposed of by the body after vaccination.

That's why it's recommended to stay clear of medical conspiracy theories altogether. What is needed are facts. Christianity is a religion based on biblical truth. Why do we study science, math, and history? It's because those subjects are truths that can help prove the authenticity of the faith. When the late D. James Kennedy wrote his book "Why I Believe" - he wrote in a lot of scientific facts to defend creation. Kenneth Alfred Ham of Answers in Genesis has a degree in Applied Science. Christianity isn't anti-science as atheists may want to claim. Instead, Christianity with its teaching of design and purpose is necessary for science to be used to help others. Vaccinations too are a result of scientific study unlike what the anti-vaccination crowd wants you to believe.

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