3

Unfortunately, there is a measles outbreak in some east coast cities where some parents refused to vaccinate their children claiming religious exemption.

Since the situation has been declared an outbreak, the religious exemption is not enough to allow unvaccinated children into school. But apparently under normal circumstances there are Jews using religious exemption not to vaccinate, and this is being accepted.

Without getting in to a discussing about who's right or wrong (or just plain crazy), I'm curious what the claimed 'religious exemption' is?

user6591
  • 33,638
  • 2
  • 39
  • 81
  • If it's chabura, than they can't receive ANY shots or blood transfusion. – user6591 Nov 19 '18 at 18:06
  • Very interesting if you have the patience: http://podcast.headlinesbook.com/e/111018-vaccinations/ - no one on that program understands the exemption, many poskim obligate vaccination – mbloch Nov 19 '18 at 18:11
  • 3
    Can't they just claim "religious exemption" without needing to back it up with Jewish sources? Maybe there's nothing else to it – Double AA Nov 19 '18 at 18:11
  • @Double is that the way it works? Doesn't religious exemption necessitate a viable religious opinion? – user6591 Nov 19 '18 at 18:15
  • 1
    @mbloch TY for that. I'll be mi'ayin. – user6591 Nov 19 '18 at 18:17
  • "Without getting in to a discussing about who's right or wrong (or just plain crazy), I'm curious what the claimed 'religious exemption' is?" - I don't think that is possible, as they are very likely tied to one another... :( – רבות מחשבות Nov 19 '18 at 18:32
  • @chacham Nisan TY. I actually didn't see that question/answer. My question is slightly different as I want to know what the claim is, that q/a wants to know if it's a sourced claim. – user6591 Nov 19 '18 at 18:42
  • I don't think there is a religious claim. It's a quasi-medical claim that vaccinations cause autism. There are studies that show a correlation between autism and vaccinations(which have been countered by the FDA) and there are quite a few pediatricians that weren't exactly for vaccinations based on the fact that even with vaccinations, kids can still be affected(and still come out okay). I, personally, hold this view with some vaccinations, but not all(polio is one). – chacham Nisan Nov 19 '18 at 18:49
  • I’d argue: administering something that can potentially be harmful, similar to doing an operation -which isn’t absolutely nec.- and it may cause sever damage. – Oliver Nov 19 '18 at 20:08
  • @Oliver Interesting. But is that the claim being made? Sakana? – user6591 Nov 19 '18 at 20:10
  • @user6591 My bad; I thought you were asking for a claim. I don’t know what the/their claim is. I’ve wondered this myself; IOW, what does Rabbi Kaminetzky et al. argue (halahically)? – Oliver Nov 19 '18 at 20:24
  • @Oliver when just about every single doctor agrees that vaccines are absolutely necessary from a public health standpoint, how can anyone possibly make a sakana argument to skip them? – Heshy Nov 19 '18 at 20:48
  • @Heshy The same way people can argue that man never landed on the moon etc. You must not be familiar with the Anti-vacc conspiratorial/medical arguments. It can be done. – Oliver Nov 19 '18 at 20:55
  • @Oliver (No I'm not familiar with the intricacies of anti-vacc and that's deliberate.) I don't see how that's a religious argument, it's a (lousy) metzius argument "and my religion says I have to follow the metzius so therefore I can't do it." Does that really hold up in court? But ok that's not on topic here. – Heshy Nov 19 '18 at 21:35

0 Answers0