Archbishop: don't pick Johnson & Johnson vaccine if you have a choice

To the island’s Catholic faithful, Archbishop Michael Byrnes says if you have the ability to choose, don’t go with the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The moral acceptability of the vaccine was the focus of a Pastoral message released by the Archdiocese on Wednesday.

At issue is the use of abortion-derived cell lines in the development, test and production of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

The Catholic Church has determined that the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines are morally acceptable because fetal tissue from aborted babies was not used in their production. However, they did find a remote connection in that it was used in testing.

The archbishop, who has been vaccinated, is urging government and medical officials to continue to provide morally acceptable vaccines such as Pfizer and Moderna to our community because of the large population of Catholics in Guam.

A shipment of 1,300 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccines arrived on Guam this week. The VAPPC has prioritized those single-dose shots to be administered to the island’s homeless population, homebound and registered participants of the Adult Day Care and Senior Citizen Center Programs. KUAM has reached out of the governor’s office as to whether they will be given a choice.