I'll be honest, I'm exhausted from the endless arguments surrounding COVID and all that goes with it. I was exhausted of the anti-vaccine arguments LONG before COVID, when I encountered folks who still sent their kids to "chicken pox parties" because they were convinced that vaccines were dangerous, immoral, demon-inspired, or contained tracking devices so the gov't could follow their whereabouts. I long since tired of claims that this, that or the other thing are either the mark of the beast, or the sign of the antichrist, or the the preparation of the mark of the antichrist, or whatever combination of words or phrases were used. I've found all anti-vaccine arguments, whether "scientific" or spiritual, to ultimately fail and these are no different. The use of cells derived from aborted fetuses has been explained in lengthy detail for decades. Nobody is shooting dead babies into their bodies. As I said earlier, if any product must be rejected if something immoral is part of its history somewhere, then we'd better find caves to live in that were never forcibly taken from previous inhabitants. Mars is looking like our best option.
I respect all my brothers and sisters, and I'm responsible for my own decisions. But I'm not taking the word of Internet writers, nor anecdotal stories of demons speaking through exorcisms, nor legions of uninformed folks broadly who have absolutely no understanding of how vaccines actually function, over the scientific advice of scientists or the spiritual guidance of my own bishop. Among the Internet Orthodox, this vaccine issue seems to be developing into another of those "we small few, misunderstood or even persecuted by the many, alone have the true understanding and hold to the true faith in times of persecution, while so many of the Orthodox bishops fall away into delusion, etc." There is no shortage within Orthodoxy of little clumps of people who've separated themselves from communion with the larger Church over whatever issue they believed warranted it, and today are essentially little cults who know better than their hierarchy. I would just caution everyone here to be careful they aren't elevating themselves too far.
And if you believe that dying on a ventilator from COVID-induced pneumonia constitutes some kind of martyrdom for the faith, have at it. I don't mean that to be rude or snarky. I just pray that more people, Orthodox or otherwise, get off their Internet forums and get vaccinated so they can reduce the number of people in our over-saturated hospitals right now. Viewed in its totality, vaccination is the ethical and Christian thing to do in our imperfect world. God bless.