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JAKARTA: Indonesia’s most influential Islamic organization said AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine is “haram” or prohibited for Muslims, but its use may be temporarily allowed due to lack of alternatives.
The Indonesian Ulema Council or MUI said it has conducted studies on the vaccine to see if it is “sacred and halal” to Muslims.
The studies, said the head of the council’s fatwa department, Asorirun Niam Sholeh, showed that the AstraZeneca vaccine uses pork-derived trypsin, which is necessary to break down proteins, in its production. The pig is considered unclean by Muslims.
“The COVID-19 vaccine produced by AstraZeneca is haram because it uses trypsin derived from pork in its production,” Sholeh said at a press conference on Friday (March 19).
“However, the use of COVID-19 vaccines produced by AstraZeneca is allowed for now.”
Sholeh said that the use of the vaccine is allowed by Islamic laws because there is an urgent need to vaccinate people immediately and the clean and halal substitution is not yet sufficient.
The permission to use the COVID-19 vaccines produced by AstraZeneca will no longer be valid, Sholeh said, when there is a sufficient supply of clean and halal vaccines.
The MUI is an independent organization but its fatwas, or religious edicts, are followed by millions of people living in this Muslim-majority country.
The decision could reduce reliance on AstraZeneca vaccines, leaving Indonesia with only one approved vaccine, developed by China’s Sinovac Biotech, for use in its nationwide vaccination campaign.
Indonesia also has agreements with other vaccine companies, including Novavax and Pfizer, although none have reached the country yet.
Indonesia received 1.1 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine through the COVAX vaccine alliance scheme this month and is expected to receive about 10 million more in the next two months.
MUI’s announcement on Friday came just as Indonesia’s Food and Drug Regulatory Agency (BPOM) recommended that the administration of AstraZeneca vaccines be resumed.
On March 15, Indonesian Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin announced that Indonesia was delaying the administration of AstraZeneca’s COVID-19 vaccine due to reports of blood clots among some recipients in Europe.
The BPOM recommendation came after the European Medicines Agency found that even though the vaccine may be associated with very rare cases of blood clots, the benefits still outweigh the risks.
The agency said on Friday: “Right now, COVID-19 infection remains high globally, including in Indonesia. Therefore, even though vaccination can lead to post-vaccination events, the risk of death from COVID-19 is even higher. Therefore, citizens must receive COVID-19 vaccines as scheduled. “
READ: AstraZeneca finds no evidence showing increased risk of blood clots with COVID-19 vaccine
The BPOM cautioned that extra precautions should be taken when inoculating people with low or high platelet counts. Platelets are cells that help the body form clots to stop bleeding.
Indonesia aims to vaccinate 181.5 million people by mid-2022.
The Southeast Asian country has been dealing with the worst outbreak in the region, having recorded more than 1.4 million infections and 39,000 deaths.
Siti Nadia Tarmizi, government spokeswoman for COVID-19 vaccination, said the government welcomes the decisions of MUI and BPOM. He added that the government will begin distributing the AstraZeneca vaccines on Monday.
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