The founder and senior pastor of Hillsong Church said recently he believes getting vaccinated against COVID-19 is a “personal decision.”
Brian Houston made the comment in a statement to CNN in the wake of the death of 34-year-old Hillsong member Stephen Harmon, who died earlier this month due to complications from COVID-19.
After Harmon’s death, news outlets jumped to shame the young man — who attended Hillsong’s Los Angeles campus — for opposing the vaccines.
“Any loss of life is a moment to mourn and offer support to those who are suffering and so our heartfelt prayers are with his family and those who loved him,” said Houston, who is based in Sydney, Australia, adding that, “on any medical issue,” Hillsong “strongly encourage[s] those in our church to follow the guidance of their doctors.”
“While many of our staff, leadership, and congregation have already received the COVID-19 vaccine,” he continued, “we recognize this is a personal decision for each individual to make with the counsel of medical professionals.”
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As for Harmon, he was hospitalized with COVID-19 on June 30. While there, he also contracted pneumonia.
The Hillsong member’s social media accounts were set to private mode after he died, but not before members of the press got ahold of some of his posts, many of which noted his opinions on COVID-19 vaccination.
“I’m not against it,” he wrote in early July. “Ironically, as I continue to lay here … in my COVID ward isolation room, fighting off the virus and pneumonia.”
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In the final tweet he posted before passing away, Harmon wrote that he was choosing to be intubated because he had “fought this thing as hard as I can, but, unfortunately, it’s reached a point of critical choice [and] as much as I hate having to do this, I’d rather it be willingness than forced emergency procedure. [I] don’t know when I’ll wake up. Please pray.”
Houston made clear in the since-deleted Instagram post that Harmon’s views on vaccination were his personal opinions and do not reflect the position of Hillsong Church.
Anything else?
On Tuesday, the director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, warned COVID-19 is “just a few mutations” away from rendering the vaccinations entirely ineffective.
Her gloomy prediction came the same day the CDC updated its guidance to recommend even fully vaccinated Americans living in regions where COVID-19 cases are surging resume wearing masks while indoors.
“For the amount of viruses circulating in this country, largely among unvaccinated people, the largest concern that I think we in public health and science are worried about is that virus and the potential mutations away we are from a very transmissible virus that has the potential to evade our vaccine, in terms of how it protects us from severe disease and death,” Walensky said told reporters during a briefing Tuesday.
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“Right now, fortunately, we are not there,” she continued. “These vaccines operate really well in protecting us from severe disease and death.”
In light of the possibility of a mutation, Walensky encouraged more Americans to get inoculated against COVID-19 as soon as possible.