From the Morning Memo:
Local and state lawmakers are pushing for a bill that would end non-medical exemptions for childhood vaccinations amid a measles outbreak in the Hudson Valley.
The legislators, Assemblyman Jeff Dinowitz, Sen. Brad Hoylman and New York City Councilman Mark Levine rallied for the issue on Thursday and touted a bill that would narrow exemptions as some parents have sought to prevent children from being vaccinated on religious grounds.
Seventeen states allow vaccine exemption on philosophical grounds; New York does not. Lawmakers argue the religious exemption is being applied broadly by anyone seeking to not vaccinate their child.
“A direct correlation can be drawn between recent outbreaks of measles and the growing number of non-medical vaccine exemptions,” Hoylman said.
Many of the measles cases have been found in Rockland County’s ultra orthodox Jewish community as hundreds of cases have been reported in recent months. Rockland County officials have sought to control the situation by declaring an emergency, and banning non-vaccinated children and teens from public areas.
“It is essential that we eliminate all except medical exemptions to school vaccine requirements,” Dinowitz said.
“There are many individuals who are claiming a religious exemption, but in reality are exercising a philosophical objection to vaccination. We cannot let a small number of people dictate public health policy in New York State. While I fully support free expression and freedom of religion, I believe that the assertion of religious freedom should not be allowed to infringe on the rights of others or to endanger the lives of others, especially children.”
The baby always dies.
As for a case of the life of the mother situation where Torah would allow for abortion, that is a special case for which yo don’t need any laws that permit a wide sweeping “abortion on demand” rule.
You can pass laws that allow abortion only where Halacha allows it in those extremely few and special cases.
Abortion needs to remain safe and legal, as there are tragic situations in which halacha does mandate them. Pro-life groups, especially those of other religions, oppose this procedure in every case, even when the mother’s life or health are at risk.
I am pro immunization, I took all the shots as a kid and would take more now if they had them for adults to prevent some new disease, that was threatening to go round. So what I am about to say should not be construe by anyone as an argument against vaccination, it’s just an argument against your specific claim, thatsuposedly no one is saying vaccines are 100% safe. The implication from many posts here (and under previous articles) seem to be implying, if not outright claiming that yes, all vaccines are 100 % totally safe. Because if not, then… Read more »
Yes, I know embarrassing someone is an issur. However, this anti-vaxxer garbage is extremely dangerous and is having devastating consequences. Dr. Wakefield, the doctor who promoted the connection between autism and vaccines has been discredited and shown to be a fraud. There is no credible link between the two. Promoting that view is dangerous. We are seeing the effects now with this measles outbreak. Vaccination has helped eradicate polio, smallpox and many other diseases. Stop pointing to some unfortunate cases where the administering of a vaccine resulted in something negative. That happens all the time in medicine. For example, any… Read more »
No one claims that vaccines are 100% effective or 100% safe. However the risks of the diseases are so much higher than the risks of the vaccines, that it should be clear to anyone who can think critically that vaccines are the way to go, until we have a better way to eradicate diseases. Measles used to kill 100s of thousands annually, and still kill thousands and leaves lifelong injures (deafness, blindness) for many more annually in places with low vaccination. “Two doses of MMR vaccine are about 97% effective at preventing measles; one dose is about 93% effective.” https://www.cdc.gov/measles/vaccination.html… Read more »
Ye, there are those who are not vaccinated getting the Measles, but there are also MANY out there who ARE VACCINATED and ALSO getting the Measles!!! What’s going on?!?!?!?
As a provider I can tell you the State of California did just this move and now is being upfront that they will keep an eye on medical exemptions by medical doctors, as if they aren’t trusted with their patients. A real case in frum child with yene machla recently: the parent asked the pediatrician if the child can have the MMR, to which the dr said absolutely not. When asked to put that in writing he refused. Same when going to the oncologist. Freedom in health is slipping down slippery slope. So we can’t trust people to make decisions… Read more »
There has never been a safety study that reaches the gold standard safety testing of EVERY other drug! (Double blind, inert placebo- the way they test if a vaccine is safe is they test one vaccine against another vaccine)
There is absolutely no study proving a direct link between autism and vaccines.
Have a look at the outbreak and active cases currently in the US here
https://www.cdc.gov/measles/cases-outbreaks.html
Alllmost all cases are in predominantly ultra orthodox communities.
Those Lubavitchers who argue that ALL vaccines are not safe, they are contradicting the Rebbe who encouraged vaccination. He was aware of the risks, yet still encouraged vaccination.
The Rebbe on multiple occasions encouraged vaccination. And not to do differently what most people do All tifosh min harzibur.
The Rebbe was clearly encouraging vaccination. But added that if there are multiple companies that produce the vaccine, choose the one that has the best track record. To argue that there is are no safe vaccines contradicts the Rebbe who is CLEARLY saying that it’s important to vaccinate, and that not only it’s safe, but it’s important to do so.
I’m very pro but I don’t like when governments doing 4 in 1 or more shots/cocktails for little babies just because it’s cheaper.
I don’t like when parents not doing any shots till age 2-4 and sending these kids to public places like Shuls where pregnant and other infants are present at the same time and can be at risk for catching something from those little kids. Same is unfair for day care and schools.
Jews need to be on top of their kids health and not vaccinated only ones who has some rare illness /etc ….
If your child or family member experienced a life changing reaction (which is rare, but definitely can happen) then they are the EXACT population that needs herd immunity to be protected!
They are the exact population that can’t receive the vaccine for a medical reason and therefor rely on the rest of the population to protect *them* through herd immunity. So by not vaccinating your other children you’re actually harming the child with the adverse reaction
“…use the ones that have been safely tried and proven.” If you do your research, you will find that vaccines are not safely tried nor proven. No placebo-controlled studies were done to prove its safety and efficacy. I live in Baltimore, where there is one case of measles that is in the news. This child was vaccinated with the first dose of the MMR. All the students in the cheder were also vaccinated. So, how safe and effective is the MMR???? He for sure did not get the disease from an unvaccinated child. The CDC has stated that there is… Read more »
The Rebbe’s words were only regarding specific vaccines when there were certain fatal diseases going around. Nowadays, the required vaccinations has increased so much to cover diseases much less dangerous than polio. Thus, you can no longer bring the Rebbe as a source. I am not saying not to vaccinate your kids. I am just saying you can’t compare. You have to be aware of the exponential increase of vaccines for much more mild diseases like chickenpox. and yes vaccines are not absolutely safe. As matter of a fact people win lawsuits for with vaccine companies for the harm that… Read more »
i thought jews were smart!
smart jews vaccinate and care about others dying or living!?!?!
since when did jews become so stupid?????
From an article on chabad. org about vaccination. When the polio vaccine was being implemented in Israel, there were those who turned to the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory, for his opinion. The following is a sampling of his replies. In the winter of 1957 the Rebbe wrote a reply, pointing out that he was hurrying to do so because of the prime importance of the issue at hand: . . Regarding your question about inoculations against disease: I am surprised by your question, since so many individuals from the Land of Israel have asked me… Read more »
I am not sure how a Lubavitcher can be anti-vaccine. The Rebbe encouraged vaccination on multiple occasions. In order to be anti vaccine as a Lubavitcher don’t you have to maintain that you are better informed and more knowledgeable on the topic than the Rebbe? The Rebbe was very cautious about new medical procedures (eg ultrasound, contact lenses) at least until it becomes clear the benefits outweigh the risks. In the case of vaccination we can be sure the Rebbe would discourage it’s use if he felt the risks outweigh the benefits. But he encouraged it’s use. So clearly he… Read more »
Why not
Dont take shots,Just keep kids home schools.
What you are referring to requires MEDICAL exemptions, which are indeed legitimate. There is no legitimacy for “religious” exemptions whatsoever.
Please stop Please realize those that aren’t vaccinated may have actually experienced a terrible life-changing reaction of their child or relative. Please realize they aren’t looking for what to fight about and please realize that just as anything out there will not agree with every person, so too it’s understandable that certain ingredients just aren’t working well for every child. Are you expecting them to continue endangering their children after experiencing a trauma in order to ‘protect’ yours? How selfish. Do u refuse to believe that such reactions exist? So thank Hashem you aren’t one of the victims but stop… Read more »
Please, stop.
Be a reasonable human being, cease the self delusion.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMR_vaccine_and_autism
YOU get your medical advice from president Trump. I’ll take it from actual doctors like the Torah says (ורפא ירפא).
What does one have to do with the other? Yes, their agenda as far as abortion and other issues is disgusting and should be opposed with every fiber of our being; no, this push is not “to force more death and disease and autism on us,” but on the contrary, to reduce them. Have you ever even stopped to consider how many people died of measles before there was a vaccine (and it _was_ a deadly disease, so much so that in some languages a way to tell someone “drop dead” was “get the measles”), and how that has changed… Read more »
The Torah tells us to guard our health. For some people, that means NOT giving vaccines.
There is nothing in Jewish law that prohibits vaccination. Quite the contrary- many rabbis have announced that in keeping with the Torah’s commandment to pr
NO MORE “ULTRA ORTHODOX” NONSENSE! this is an american issue, not jewish
Only about 2 months ago the NY Governor and “lawmakers” were Celebrating the destruction of innocent life. A sad and shameful day in the history of NY. New York Democrats were cheering and clapping as legislation was passed for abortions to be performed up until birth. And they lit the One World Trade Center tower in pink to celebrate their death bill against the Torah. Also, you no longer have to be a doctor to perform abortions in New York. How can any religious person, of any religion, support the Democratic Party?! I guess this vaccine thing is their encore… Read more »
To vaccinate is about saving a life that you come in contact with
So; if you dont vaccinate you dont care about other people
So; we shouldn’t care about them .
I’ve been a religious jew my whole life. My religion has nothing in it about putting yourself and others in danger.
So to all those getting religious exemptions, from what religion are you getting them?