Orthodox Reflections

Early on, practically everyone knew that the only COVID jabs available in the United States and Canada were linked to aborted fetal cells in some way.

Nevertheless, many Orthodox clergy, academics, and laity tried to defend the jabs using combinations of the following arguments.

• The harvesting occurred many decades ago, and the current cell lines have been replicated many times in labs. No more babies have been killed.
• The good done by the jabs outweighs the linkage to dead babies. The jabs will save lives in the here and now, which is more important than what was done to the babies decades ago.
• Aborted fetal cells are ubiquitous. We use medicines and products developed with them all the time, so this is no big deal.
• You have a moral obligation to take the jabs to protect others. It’s the Christian thing to do.

The first and second points above, for example, were critical to Orthodox bioethicist Dr. Gayle Woloschak’s defense of the jabs. See our response to her here.

The supposed ubiquitous use of aborted fetal cells was a key line of defense of the jabs by Orthodox physician Dr. Ryan Sampson Nash in his interviews with Ancient Faith Radio. The “we use a lot of evil things” has been so persuasive that even an Orthodox Pro-life Society defended the use of the jabs on that basis.

See the responses to Dr. Nash by an Orthodox physician and an Orthodox RN.

The last point is probably the most emphasized in Orthodox Christian circles. Even at the height of the panic, most people realized that COVID was really only dangerous to the elderly and those with significant co-morbidities. Taking the jabs made little sense to those in population groups that already had a 99.98% survival rate. To overcome that thorny problem of self-interest and increase “vaccine” uptake, more than one religious leader argued that you should take the jabs to stop the spread of COVID to the vulnerable – you should take the jabs to protect others in the name of Christ as an act of Christian charity. Typical of this argument is this statement from Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople:

“But it is not only a matter of necessity or choice; it is also a responsibility to fellow human beings. That is why I hope that a large part of the world’s population will soon be vaccinated for the spread of the deadly virus to stop. Of course, until then, we must all strictly observe the protective measures so as not to mourn more victims.”

If you didn’t get the jabs, you were a bad Christian who wanted to kill granny. At Orthodox Reflections, we never excused the use of jabs linked to abortion. We never will. However, at least early on it was understandable that many clergy might have sincerely believed taking the jabs would “save others.” After all, that was what all the “experts” were saying. This video on Twitter is a montage of important people telling you that if get the jabs, you won’t get sick and you won’t spread the virus. Granny will be saved!

Many Orthodox bishops, priests, academics, parish councils, and even laity are still using this argument. Only now, there is absolutely no excuse for it. The jabs don’t stop the spread. The jabs don’t protect you from getting sick. The jabs are dangerous. There is all cost and no benefit, unless you are one of the lucky ones making liability-free billions off the “vaccine gold rush.”

It is time to face a very unpleasant fact – millions of Orthodox Christians, including many bishops, sold out the Church’s teaching on abortion in exchange for nothing. 

Weakening the position of the Church against abortion by endorsing the use of aborted fetal cells in medicines and other products is not only immoral, it is not even practically useful. This is becoming daily more apparent as the COVID narrative continues to collapse.  If you are in an Orthodox leadership position, and you are still encouraging the jabs as a way to “love your neighbor”, please stop immediately. You are helping no one, and you could convince someone to take a course of action that can hurt them greatly. As more people wake up, there will be a monumental backlash against leaders who who have persisted in being wrong about COVID and the jabs. For the sake of the Gospel, change course now and preserve at least some credibility. Repentance is available to everyone, no matter how public was your mistake.

But don’t take our word for it. Let’s listen to an expert physician who has successfully treated hundreds of COVID patients. Dr. Peter McCullough is a famous cardiologist and epidemiologist in academic and medical practice in Dallas, Texas. Dr. McCullough was key in publishing in 2020 the first protocol for treating COVID. We have linked to several of Dr. McCullough’s videos here.

Dr. McCullough was recently on Joe Rogan’s podcast. The episode has been listened to over 40 million times. An Orthodox physician in Canada recommended the podcast, and was kind enough to highlight some of the most important parts in the notes below. The podcast is embedded, followed by some key points with additional commentary. Keep in mind, from the beginning there have been thousands of doctors and medical researchers who questioned the official COVID narrative. Their testimony has now gone mainstream. If you are an Orthodox leader, you need to listen to them. Change course now, before you have no credibility left.

Key points according to Dr. McCullough:

• Hydroxychloroquine, in combination with other drugs, usually works well in EARLY COVID to prevent hospitalization at a dose of 200 mg twice daily for 5-30 days. Dr. McCollough also talks about Ivermectin. Early treatment is essential to preventing hospitalizations and deaths. The 4-letter government agencies actively fought against early treatment protocols to preserve the ability of “vaccine” makers to get EUA for the jabs. (More on that here if you prefer to read about it.)
• We are living through a Mass Psychosis that has been achieved through the following four steps:
  • • • • Prolonged isolation
        • Removal of enjoyments
        • Constant anxiety
        • A single solution (vaccine) offered by authority figure
• Four Pillars to Any Pandemic Response (but we only got vaccines which are not very safe or effective):
  • • • • Reduce spread by (i) improving airflow and using (ii) ORAL-NASAL VIROCIDAL THERAPY (hand sanitizing does nothing) ORAL NASAL VIROCIDAL THERAPY HAS HELPED THIRD WORLD COUNTRIES CONTROL THE PANDEMIC: Make it at home as follows: 2 Teaspoons of Betadine (buy at drug store without Rx) mixed in 6 oz of water. Use it as a sinus rinse and then gargle & spit or spray it into your nose with a sprayer or syringe, snort it back and spit it out through your mouth and gargle & spit with the rest. Do this at the end of every day after coming in contact with people. In RCT, this has been shown to reduce disease by 75%.(iii) In Randomized Controlled Trials, masks don’t work. 18% of air moved in and through the surgical masks which filter out objects that are 3 microns in size. The virus is 1 micron in size. Masks only stop the spread of big coughs and sneezes.
        • Improve early HOME BASED treatment with McCullough’s protocol, or with Monoclonal Antibodies which are available here in Toronto. You have to get them by day 8 of your infection with COVID. No referral necessary. Call and arrange your own appointment. Currently, they are only treating the unvaccinated (which is too bad) and the vaxxed who are immunocompromised because of limited supply, but they hope to expand to the vaxxed as well in future. Whether you are vaxxed or unvaxxed, if you have COVID, please give them a call. Monoclonal Antibodies are available in most American States, especially Florida. Note Not in Interview:Inexplicably, however, it appears that the Biden Administration is attempting to suppress this effective treatment. Florida Surgeon General Joseph A. Ladopo recently sent a searing letter to the Biden administration’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, accusing the Biden administration of “actively preventing the effective distribution of monoclonal antibody treatments in the U.S.”
        • Improve Hospital Therapies
        • Prevention with safe and effective vaccines
• Virus is NOT spread asymptomatically, but only form sick person to susceptible person. False positive PCR testing is 97% in asymptomatic people. Early on in the pandemic, influenza tested positive for COVID-19 (This completely destroys the case for mandatory masking, even if masks were effective.)
• JAMA publication in autumn of 2021 published a paper which showed that among hospitalized COVID patients, the mortality in vaccinated patients was 6.3% and in unvaccinated patients 8.6%. The p value shows no statistically significant difference between these stats. (No, the jabs won’t protect you from hospitalization or death.)
• Vaccine efficacy “falls off a cliff” after 6 months of vaccination BUT there have been no cases of repeat COVID infections after COVID illness. A COVID infection renders you immune for life. This bears true despite the false talking points of some media sources. CDC was unable to find one case of a repeat COVID infection. Studies done on Sars-Cov-1 infections shows that immunity lasts a lifetime and Sars-Cov-2 is the same. McCullough’s data and testimony to this effect have been steadily reversing vaccine mandates in the US. 200 million people have already had COVID and should not be vaccinated. Three studies have shown that vaccinating people who have already had COVID is more harmful than beneficial.
• Obesity and COVID-19 – Cytokine storm is led by interleukin 6, which is also produced by human fat cells, so the fattier a person is, the higher the risk of a cytokine storm. (We Orthodox should really be encouraging fasting and healthier lifestyles in accordance with God’s Will.)
• D-dimer testing during early COVID illness is a good indicator of developing blood clots. (More on that here.)
• Vaccine injury and death – Before COVID vaccines, there were in the USA 150 deaths from 278,000,000 vaccines all totaled. This was the safety benchmark. As of January 22, 2021, 27,000,000 COVID vaccine shots resulted in 182 deaths which is a much higher proportion of deaths. A drug is usually taken off the market after 50 deaths. To date, there have been 18,000 COVID vaccine deaths in US and 30,000 permanently vaccine disabled people. Also, 30,000 cases of myocarditis in US to date due to vaccine. VAERS is currently underreported about 4-5X. (This article features a nurse describing what it is like to deal with VAERS and why so few reactions are actually reported.)
• Concerns with re-vaccination – Vaccine seeds all over the body due to the lipid nanoparticles. There is progressive accumulation of spike protein if vaccine is administered every 6 months. Vaccines do give some protection but the evidence is not compelling enough to mandate them in people according to McCullough.
• Paper published in the Lancet – There is NO data that vaccines protect OTHERS. 39% of transmission in Lancet Paper took place from fully vaxxed to fully vaxxed! And omicron originated in the vaccinated. (Taking the jabs will not protect others. It is a false narrative.  Potentially harming yourself will not protect your “neighbor.”)
• Transmissibility – Wuhan variant was a (2), Delta variant was a (10) and Omicron variant is a (4), therefore less transmissible than delta. Omicron is believed to have arisen from genetic errors. There are 37 mutations on the spike protein, 6 deletions and 1 insertion. 16 of the 37 are surge mutations (happened very suddenly). So far, Omicron is a milder disease. Let’s hope it stays that way. According to news reports, in the UK, where restrictions have not been augmented due to the Omicron variant, mortality is about 0.7%. Mortality in other areas where restrictions have been increased is about 0.1% Please compare this with the Canadian Mortality data of seasonal influenza which is 1.0%

To learn more, we recommend watching additional videos from Dr. McCullough and signing up for our upcoming COVID Webinar. Coming 01/09/2022 at 7 p.m. Eastern, the Webinar will feature a panel discussion of the moral, legal, and medical issues surrounding COVID and the jabs. Registration is limited, so please click here for more information.