Shincheonji Church is cooperating with the government in developing COVID-19 therapies. Recovered members from coronavirus to donate blood plasma for the COVID-19 vaccine.
Notable Donation of Blood Plasma by SCJ Members
Around 4000 members of the Shincheonji Church will give their blood plasma to accelerate the development of COVID-19 treatment in the country. A Shincheonji official said that the members had a meeting with Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC) and Green Cross Pharma (a biopharmaceutical company in South Korea) to discuss the details. An official from Green Cross Pharma said that it was difficult to research with only 200 blood plasma donors. However, such a massive contribution by the Church members will solve the problem of shortage of blood plasma. According to US officials, 4000 members donating 500 ml of plasma will be worth USD 83 billion.
Shincheonji Church- COVID Hotspot in March
South Korea has reported 12,400 cases so far of which 5200 are linked to the Shincheonji Church. A large congregation that took place in the early phase of the COVID-19 outbreak (Feb-March) was associated with the outbreak. Also, all 4000 testing positive were from its branch in the southeastern city of Daegu. KCDC announced the association of 4,482 infections of Korean cases with SCJ by 8th March.
Media Allegations and Lawsuits Against SCJ Members
SCJ is a Christian church with multiple outposts in Korea. The linking of the congregation with the outbreak allowed church critics. The authorities accused Church members of failing to comply with COVID-19 health protocol. Also, the media cited them for concealing their membership. The constant press releases linking the church members to the outbreak contributed to public paranoia. Not only this, but they were publicly outed, and many lost their jobs. Moreover, Seoul Mayor filed a lawsuit against 12 leaders of SCJ. This led to the extraction of their surveillance footage, credit card histories, and cellular geolocation data without any judicial approval.
In all, the religious congregation may have contributed to the pandemic. However, the SCJ members had their struggles too. Despite the allegations, members have come together to cooperate with the government in fighting the battle against coronavirus pandemic.