Johnson & Johnson vaccine creates a week of confusion for Catholics An attempt to clear up confusion about the moral acceptability of the vaccine only created further uncertainty. Pharmacist Madeline Acquilano draws a syringe of the Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine at Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Conn., Wednesday, March 3, 2021. The first shipments of the vaccine arrived at the hospital Wednesday morning. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill) March 5, 2021 (RNS) — Catholic clerics and organizations continued to wrangle over how best to respond to a new COVID-19 vaccine this week, with bishops scrambling to make their views known on how their faithful should approach a vaccine produced by Johnson & Johnson that some say is morally tainted by a connection to a long-ago aborted fetus.