| Welcome back to the Strategic CSR Newsletter! The first newsletter of the Spring semester is below. As always, your comments and ideas are welcome. |
With all the barriers that have cropped up to impede the efficient distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine, the article in the url below discusses one that would not immediately have occurred to me—whether the "shots are halal":
"A vaccine laced with the smallest amount of pork DNA could dissuade some followers of Islam from inoculation in Indonesia, the country with the world's largest Muslim population."
In Indonesia, which has the world's fourth largest population (in addition to the largest Muslim population), the lack of transparency on the vaccine's ingredients is a significant barrier to widespread inoculation:
"With the highest number of coronavirus infections in Southeast Asia, [Indonesia] is eager to drum up support for its goal of inoculating 181.5 million adults within 15 months. But looming questions about the safety of the Sinovac vaccine and whether it is halal, or allowed under Islam, are complicating the government's efforts."
For those who will not receive a vaccination that has not been approved by religious clerics, assurances from pharmaceutical companies are insufficient:
"The vaccine must also undergo a separate approval process by the Ulema Council, an influential group of Muslim clerics that decides which products are halal in Indonesia. … The Ulema Council is expected to issue a decree, or fatwa, authorizing the use of the [approved] vaccine in the coming weeks, but the nature of its findings could affect how widely it is accepted in Indonesia, especially among the country's many conservative Muslims."
This, in spite of assurances from other Islamic countries:
"Islamic authorities in other countries where Muslims make up a sizable share of the population, including Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates, have already ruled that coronavirus vaccines are permissible, even if they contain pork gelatin, which is used to stabilize many inoculations."
And, such moral concerns are not restricted to Islam:
"Last month, the Vatican released a statement declaring coronavirus vaccines 'morally acceptable' for Catholics who might be opposed to a vaccine developed with stem cells from fetuses aborted decades ago."
The concerns are real and, if the findings of the Ulema Council are not sufficiently convincing, the implications could be serious:
"During a measles outbreak in 2018, the government, backed by the World Health Organization, undertook an ambitious vaccination program, but the only vaccine available in sufficient quantities contained pig products. After analyzing the measles vaccine, the Ulema Council declared it haram, or forbidden under Islam, but said its use was allowed because the outbreak was an emergency. In some parts of the country, however, local Muslim leaders opposed using a haram vaccine. The program fell well short of its 95 percent target and ended with nearly 10 million children unvaccinated."
Hope you all have a good semester.
Take care
David
David Chandler
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Muslims in Indonesia Ask if Shots are Halal
By Richard C. Paddock
January 6, 2021
The New York Times
Late Edition – Final
A8
