COVID-vaccines – must churches give info to Government?

Freedom of Religion South Africa (FOR SA) is aware that certain Provincial Health Departments are writing to faith-based leaders to request information on the number of church leaders (Bishops, Reverends and Pastors) over 60 years old, or over 18 and suffering from co-morbidities, so that they can order the correct quantities of vaccinations for COVID-19. We are unsure of the specific purpose for this request, given that everyone over 60 or with co-morbidities can get the vaccine at Stage 2 of the vaccine roll-out programme.FOR SA has no views either for, or against, vaccinations in general and the COVID-19 vaccination in particular, other than to state that the right to religious freedom (section 15 of the Constitution) and other constitutional rights such as the right to freedom and security of the person (section 12 of the Constitution), must be respected by Government. To this end, on 10 February 2021, we wrote to the President to bring to his attention that various members of the faith community are concerned and/or reluctant to take the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson vaccines, due to the use of (historical) abortion-derived fetal cell lines in the development, production and/or testing of those vaccines. FOR SA urged the President to take into account possible conscientious objections to this type of vaccine in Government’s deliberations regarding, and implementation of, the roll-out of the vaccine programme (and in particular which vaccines to procure).In a response received on 17 March 2021, Dr Buthelezi (the Director-General of the Department of Health) confirmed that Government is in the process of procuring two vaccines, namely from Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer. He confirmed that the Johnson & Johnson vaccine does not contain any form of fetal tissue, but it was “propagated in a tissue culture line derived from aborted foetal tissue” (i.e. that it used historical abortion-derived foetal cell lines in the development, production and/or testing.) He further confirmed that the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine “is based on a mRNA platform”.Taken together with previous statements from the President (which were confirmed by Dr Buthelezi), our constitutional rights and other applicable factors, we believe that any choice taken regarding whether (or not) to be vaccinated, or to provide the requested information on vaccinations, can take into account the following factors:

• There is no obligation (other than from a point of voluntary cooperation and appreciation of the request from Government) to respond to them with information.
• It would be contrary to the Protection of Personal Information Act, 4 of 2013 (POPI) to provide specific contact information and details for any person without their express consent.
• There is no legal obligation on any person to be vaccinated at all.
• If you choose to be vaccinated, if you do not want to receive one type of vaccine (and an alternative is available, which may depend upon various logistical factors), you can (or should be able to) await a future time when your alternative choice of vaccine is available.
• Vaccinations remain controversial and some people are hesitant to be vaccinated, based upon their:

• Development (in some instances) using foetal tissue;
• Experimental nature of some of the vaccines;
• Limited evidence of adverse side effects; and/or
• Unknown long-term consequences.
• As a final note of interest, those who may wish/need to travel internationally may face restrictions and quarantine periods in some countries.  Although certain nations have called for “vaccination passports” for international travellers, on Thursday, 8 April 2021 the head of the Africa Center for Disease Control and Prevention described COVID-19 vaccine passports as “inappropriate" while poor countries lag behind others in acquiring the shots.
• FOR SA will continue to monitor the vaccine roll-out to ensure that religious freedom and conscientious objection rights are respected and upheld.