About half of US Protestant adults don’t plan to receive the new COVID-19 vaccine, according to a recent Pew Research Center survey.
While confidence in the vaccine has actually risen since September threecompaniesannounced viable vaccines last month 50 percent of white evangelicals and 59 percent of black Protestants say they won’t get the vaccine, while the majority of the US population overall (60%) says they will.
For centuries, religion and medicine have collaborated for the prevention of disease, though the relationship at times has been complex. In more recent years, public health professionals have relied on church leaders’ support particularly in communities of color to gain trust in promoting health initiatives. The coronavirus pandemic has become another example of the complex relationship between faith and science.