Brooklyn, NY – For the fourth time since 2008, city health officials say the ultra-Orthodox community in Borough Park is battling a measles outbreak, with a case now also being reported in Williamsburg.
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DNAinfo.com (http://on.dnainfo.com/10vYRNq) is reporting that of the 24 total cases reported to date, all have recovered without the need for hospitalization.
According to officials, the first case in Borough Park was carried back to Brooklyn from London by someone who refused vaccination, and that the bulk of the remaining cases have also involved anti-vaccination residents, a sentiment, officials say, is prevalent among ultra-Orthodox families in Brooklyn.
But Rabbi Moshe Tendler, the rabbi Isaac and Bella Tendler professor of medical ethics and professor of biology at Yeshiva University, has cautioned that the prevailing anti-vaccination attitude is not so much “religion-related,” but stems more from a “failure” in “understanding” the capabilities of “modern medicine” due to families having no secular education.
Rabbi Tendler also noted a higher percentage of reliance upon “holistic” medicine within the ultra-Orthodox community.
A spokesman for the Health Department said that the “overall” immunization numbers for the ultra-Orthodox community are in line with those of most other communities within the five boroughs.
The Health Department official added that people should not be fooled by phony Internet websites falsely representing vaccinations as “bad for you,” and assured the public that the vaccinations are “safe,” and should be taken advantage of.
This is what happens when women listen to what they hear at the sheitelmacher for medical advice rather than checking with their physicians. I bet you that their doctor wouldn’t presume to advise them how to style their sheitlach….
I hear pigeon’s blood works to cure measles…
But it only works in Williamsburg.
Can anyone explain to me how anti-vaccination is related to secular education ? Perhaps it’s just not a blind belief in doctors.
Oh btw, This idea that secular education is something that our community needs is a joke!
The African American and Latino communities have a severe problem of teenage pregnancies and runaway kids, among other problems, yet they have secular education. Hmmm…perhaps secular education is not quite worth the results it yields.
holistic medicines??? whoever i know, including my own kids are all up to date on their shots. In fact , dont schools not allow kids into class if they are not up to date?
GET VACCINATED!!!! I have seen first hand the brain damage caused by the measles virus. Don’t let that happen to YOUR child.
My friend in Monsey has 9 children and none of them are vaccinated because her Ruv is opposed. I am trying in ernest to convince her the Ruv is wrong and I just can’t get through to her. What do Rabbonim know about health matters anyway?
Vaccinate your kids
Another harmful consequence of going without secular education.
If members of our community would know some basic science and its history (i.e. the huge numbers of deaths and disease that existed before vaccinations), they would do anything to have their kids vaccinated. Ignorance kills.
Why can’t these people immunize their children? Maybe we should start asking the airlines to ask people travelling with children for proof of immunization! Either they will stay home or they will start immunizing?
Slanderous, contradictory article and you all take the bait. And one Williamsburg case does not equal an outbreak. The concept of not vaccinating has nothing to do with insularity, au contraries, it stems from too much information, albeit not mainstream medical inf
When I was a kid in the fifties and early sixties as soon as one kid on the block caught any of the childhood illnesses – measles, mumps, chickenpox – all the other kids were brought over to play, in the hope that they would catch it as well. This what doctors recommended because the immunity conferred by the real thing is infinitely stronger than that conferred by vaccine. In fact vaccinated people regularly get the illness again. As soon as vaccines became available, and doctors started getting paid for every vaccination they give, all that changed and the hype began about how they are killer diseases. Once the vaccine patents run out (not long now), the manufacturers will not have the same incentive to bribe government to force people to vaccinate, let’s see what will be…
I have slowed down my child’s vaccinations. This was done not by a lack of secular knowledge but because he showed signs of sickness and became autistic soon after a vaccine. I am not sure of cause and effect.
My action was taken only for my children and it is not stopping all vaccines but altering the timetable.
I have found that honest experts claim that the benefits of vaccines outweigh the risk for most people, only fools guarantee that all vaccines are safe.
Just to clarify one point. Most parents who choose not to vaccinate do LOADS of research before making such a crucial decision. This isn’t coming from a lack of education; it is in fact the exact opposite. Many who have sadly watched their own children suffer adverse reactions from vaccines were forced to dig deeper into the dangers and risks of vaccines. The more people educate themselves, the more horrified they become- of the risks (seizures, autism, asthma…) and of what ingredients are put into these vaccines (Bovine cow serum: extracted from cow skin, Aluminum, Thimerosal…) Reply to #19 : Yes, Mercury, also known as thimerosal IS STILL ADDED IN VACCINES TODAY. Don’t believe me? Do a little something called RESEARCH and you will easily find it on cdc.gov.
Another interesting fact that I found fascinating was that 95% of those infected with polio don’t experience any symptoms at all!! About 4-8% experience minor symptoms such as fever, nausea, headaches…etc. Less than 1% actually do get paralyzed. Educate yourselves about these diseases and you will be shocked at how less dangerous they are than what we are lead to believe.