Statement on Vaccination
We have lately been made aware that several members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Singapore have discouraged members of the general public from availing themselves of the COVID-19 vaccination program currently being rolled out in Singapore; in the context of distributing flyers in a public space, ostensibly on behalf of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Singapore.
The Seventh-day Adventist Conference (Singapore) wishes to clarify that:
(i) The members who had done so were acting in their own capacity and without the sanction of the Seventh-day Adventist Conference (Singapore), or their own local church leadership;
(ii) The world Seventh-day Adventist Church, of which the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Singapore is a part, believes in and advocates for the responsible practice of evidence-based medicine. In fact, the Seventh-day Adventist Church runs numerous hospitals and healthcare centres worldwide, all of which provide holistic health care rooted in sound scientific principles and evidence-based medicine. Immunisation drives such as the COVID-19 vaccination program presently being rolled out in Singapore, are a fundamental component of public health, particularly in the face of highly contagious and potentially devastating infectious diseases such as COVID-19. The commitment of the Singapore Government to ensuring the well-being of its people by means of making COVID-19 immunisation available to all, is laudable;
(iii) While the choice to take up the COVID-19 vaccine has been left to the discretion of the individual, the Seventh-day Adventist Conference (Singapore) wishes to remind our Church members that this discretion does not connote a right or freedom to spread disinformation/ misinformation of any nature; and
(iv) Public vaccination against COVID-19 is entirely in keeping with the spirit of the health message, and our historic commitment to best practices in healthcare and public health. This being the case, the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Singapore strongly encourages its members to avail themselves of the vaccine when they are able to do so.