The NYC Health Department has come out with a strong new policy as they work to contain the current measles outbreak. Part of the statement given to YWN reads: “Effective Friday, December 7th, every student attending a Yeshiva in the below zip codes who is not vaccinated will not be permitted to attend school, regardless of whether a case of measles has occurred in the school”.
Zip codes include: 11204, 11205, 11206, 11211, 11218, 11219, 11220, 11230, 11249 – Which is Boro park, Williamsburg, parts of Flatbush and other areas of Brooklyn.
Just a few days ago, YWN spoke with Dr. Jane R. Zucker, the Assistant Commissioner for the Bureau of Immunization at the NYC Department of Health who said that there are now 39 confirmed cases. All of the cases are in Brooklyn – 15 of them are in Williamsburg, 21 are in Boro Park, 1 in Bensonhurst, 1 in Marine Park.
“Besides for five cases being adults, the rest are all children under the age of five, Dr Zucker told YWN”.
“The vast majority of these cases were unvaccinated, and many of these children could have been vaccinated and this outbreak could have been prevented”.
Dr. Zucker told YWN that they suspect there are many additional cases that have not been properly reported.
NYC Councilman Kalman Yeger, who represents Boro Park, Midwood, and Bensonhurst gave the following statement to YWN after learning of the new policy:
“I’m grateful to Mayor de Blasio and his team at the Department of Health for their immediate actions to protect our community’s children. This is a clear issue of pikuach nefesh. It is imperative that parents immediately vaccinate their children. It is just as imperative that our parents and yeshivas take all the necessary precautions to keep unvaccinated children away from harm. For this reason, DOH must take this drastic step to require unvaccinated children to be excluded from school until they receive the required vaccinations or the crisis has passed.”
Here is the full statement by the NYC health Department:
Meanwhile, Rockland County Health Commissioner Dr. Patricia Schnabel Ruppert told YWN that as of December 6, there are 89 confirmed reported cases of measles in the county.
In Lakewood, the Ocean County Health Department tell YWN that:
• There are now 18 confirmed measles cases.
• There are also 7 potential cases under investigation.
• Vaccination is encouraged and those children involved with exposure to a confirmed case may be subject to an order of exclusion, if unvaccinated.
• The Ocean County Health Department continues to support and highly encourage the exclusion of non-vaccinated children from schools, preschools and daycares in the outbreak area. These entities have the authority to make that decision when an outbreak has been declared by the New Jersey Department of Health. The age range so far for the current outbreak is 6 months to 59 years old.
In the City of Passaic, there are three confirmed cases in one household.
Earlier on Thursday, YWN published that in the London UK Chareidi community there are at least 60 confirmed cases.
There are also cases in Kiryas Joel in Orange County, NY.
Last week, YWN published an extensive Psak Halacha written by one of the leading Poskim in the world, Hagaon HaRav Moshe Shternbuch to the Rosh Yeshiva of BMG, HaRav Malkiel Kotler. In the letter translated for YWN, Rav Shternbuch explains why it is a Halachic obligation to vaccinate.
Additionally, the issue of vaccinations was brought up at the Agudah Convention at a panel with HaRav Elya Brudny and Harav Yosef Elefant. The video below is from that session.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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33 Responses
i just a letter this morning from a leaflet which they distribute in the BP shuls and there is a letter from someone signed Chaim Reichman who writes that he made his own study about the measels vaccination.
bottom line he writes that if you read the literature that comes with the immunization bottles which the doctors shpritz into every child has many many side effects,he writes it all out and also he claims that the Health agencies have been hiding this information from the public for many years.
So now the bottom line is that of course we know that immunization stops measels and other diseases but it also DOES harm to many children , so lets NOT condemn those who refuse to get vaccinated and those Rabunim who signed off on KOL korahs warning the public are NOT knowledgeable with the true facts of immunization.
My kids got the shot , but again there is a second side to the BIG trask over immunization.
Freilichen chanukah and hashem should help all yiddishe mamas to only have gezunte kinderlech and bring them up with health and naches…
Rebyossel, do the math. How many people do you know who had a fatal reaction from the measels vaccination? Prob none. How many people have you heard of who died of the measels? Prob quite a few.
How many children are out there who had the vaccination and are perfectly healthy with no side effects? Many many millions I’m sure.
Nothing is risk free, but if you look at the big picture, this is a complete no brainer
Well Yeshiva World News and the lying Doctors, Askanim, and organizations, who have collaborated, aided, and abetted, this crime against humanity.Looks like you got your way. Be careful what you wish for. Today they are coming for the Anti Mandatory Vaccination community. Tomorrow they will come for you.
RebYossel -YOUR Words are Possel! Don’t bring this issue out of the CR!
B”H!!! It’s about time!!!
@flatbushantivaxxer – Great. Let them come after us, your murderous thug. You and the Rebbitzen who says this is all “organized crime”. You people are in a cult. No way to reason with you. Wait until a a FEW CHILDREN DIE from this.
Not to worry, you will blame it on something else, you conspiracy wackjobs.
They will soon say the air is being poisoned by the government to force people to take medication.
So the Rabbanim who signed the Kol Korah are NOT knowledgeable, but this guy Chaim Reichman is? What are his qualifications?There is a vast conspiracy within all the health agencies to hide the side effects? For what purpose? You dont seem to know. Further, these parents have no business sending there kids to schools where they can infect other kids. You can believe what you want, its a free country, but when your beliefs interfere with my rights and the rights of others then we have a problem Reb Yossel
Now, hopefully, Lakewood and Monsey will learn from this excellent policy and adopt similar ones as soon as possible. This is fantastic! Yasher koach to NYC!!!!!
Cool it, everyone! Conspiracy theories manage to get lots of press, with zero regard for truth or fact. That has always been the case. It is the most rational explanation for the media’s obsession for trashing Trump no matter what he did or didn’t do. There is a ton of focus on the plight of Palestinians, with no mention of their obsession with terror and murder. Was the moonwalk a staged broadcast from a Nevada desert? How about the plea of poverty by the Clinton’s as they departed the WH? These hoaxes were once the trash that circulated through social media and provided entertainment. But those boundaries have long since melted away, and this sort of trash is common report as if factual and true.
I dismiss all this garbage, and place letters like this in the trash heap. Roundfile it.
Rebyossel,
Please read ANY literature that comes with all medicine and you’ll see the same. There is always a remote possibility that one can get harmed while taking any form of medicine.
Let me ask you, how many healthy people die in car accidents?
According to
The national highway transportation, 40,000 people dies in 2016.
Thats far more than anyone supposedly injured from vaccines.
Would you stop getting into a car??
Rebyossel —a bit early for Purim torah, no?
” letter from someone signed Chaim Reichman who writes that he made his own study about the measels vaccination.”
well there’s expertise, if you ask me lol
“the literature that comes with the immunization bottles…that the Health agencies have been hiding this information from the public for many years”
they’ve been hiding the info by writing it on all the bottles?
” it also DOES harm to many children”
name 6
” those Rabunim who signed off on KOL korahs warning the public are NOT knowledgeable with the true facts of immunization.”
how do you know?
Flatbush anti vaxer all we can hope for is that they come for you, if a non jewish child dies from this what do you think is going to happen , take your conspiracy theory and move to iceland
But the government know best and only has our best interests in mind, right? Like mandating 6 hours of secular studies in yeshiva, right?
Baaaabaaaabaaa
Seems some posters cannot see their own self-contradictions:
“if you read the literature that comes with the immunization bottles … the Health agencies have been hiding this information from the public for many years.”
Exactly from where did these ‘ literature that comes with the immunization bottles” come from if not from the (vaguely worded) “Health agencies”? Inserting literature is a strange way of ” hiding this information”.
Mr or Mrs. Bulldozer. Who is the thug? I am not forcing you to vaccinate or not vaccinate. However you and your fellow selfless, altruistic, well meaning, nice people, have gotten Rabbonim,Schools, Shuls, and now the Government to violate my civil rights and my human rights. The NYC DOH has clearly done this with the collaboration of leaders in our community. So who indeed is a thug? Who is murderous? Is throwing children out of yeshiva not a form of spiritual murder?
Why isn’t Crown Heights on the list? They have their share of antivaxer wackos, I know some of them! One couple sued Oholei Torah because the school refused to admit their unvaxed son. My grandchildren who are too young to be vaxed are at risk!
Most prepared deli meats today contains carcinogens.
Lets all stop eating deli meat!
(from Deuteronomy 22:26): Habah l’hargecha hashkem l’hargo — “If someone is coming to kill you, rise against him and kill him first.”
understand that as you will
@hmm your grandchildren are putting everyone at risk like the antivaxxers.
Yimach Shmo to every member of our NYS Heath Dept. Bunch of wacko trouble-makers.
What an excellent policy by the NYC Health Department! This is real leadership! It’s sad that it has needed to come to this because of the evil FRUM anti-vaxxers but this demonstration of leadership is just what we needed. Since anti-vaxxers won’t do the right thing on their own, they unfortunately need to be forced to do it. How sad! Let’s hope that health departments in other frum communities (Lakewood, Monsey) follow suit as soon as possible so that we can put a stop to this evil anti-vaxxer madness. Thank you NYC Health Department!!! and yasher koach Councilman Yeger for YOUR leadership and support of this important new policy!!
R Yoizele will you be responsible for every birth defect out of pregnancy rubela if cholila it comes? Chasanim and Kallahs must do a simple test called titers.
And Kavod Habrios same question. There will be no kavod for any parent strugling with crippled kids born after a rubella outbreak if cholila it starts. Go read about polio sickness too.
What are we all doing? Inviting the government into our schools, allowing them to discriminate against Jews (they have a different policy for the public schools in the above zip codes), and letting them create a rift in Klal Yisroel that is resulting in the Tinokos shel Bais rabban not learning Torah with their rebbeim?!?! How have we allowed this to happen, on Chanukah no less. I fear for our future in America.
None of these comments amount to anything more than anecdotal evidence, conspiracy theories or quotes from people who have no place in the medical field.
Instead of arguing and insulting one another, why not spend the time researching the subject, questioning your own beliefs and consider the fact that perhaps you may be wrong.
Here’s a pointer: Look up Dr Andrew Wakefield’s study published in The Lancet, a British medical Journal (Lancet 1998;351[9103]:637–41)
This was the “patient zero” study that the MMR (Specifically combined immunizations) can cause autism. This is the beginning of all the controversy, and since, a minority (rarely ever medical proffesionals, decided they know better, there is a global vaccination conspiracy and equate all immunization with autism. The Lancet subsequently discredited the study, saying in was inherently flawed and “several elements” are plain incorrect.
In fact, Britain’s General Medical Council ruled, the children that Wakefield studied were carefully selected and some of Wakefield’s research was funded by lawyers acting for parents who were involved in lawsuits against vaccine manufacturers. The council found Wake-field had acted unethically and had shown “callous disregard” for the children in his study, upon whom invasive tests were performed.
Wakefield’s study was done in the 90s. If it were all that common for combined vaccines to have regular, adverse effects, someone, somewhere would have credible peer reviewed study proving it by now.
In the 14th century Jews were falsely blamed for spreading the Black Plague. Now, through raw stupidity and ignorance, we actually could be responsible for starting a new plague of disease and death.
kavod Habriot, Add me to your personal list of “Yimach Shmo”. Myself and a large amount of frum Jews stand with the NYS Health Dept with this particular issue. It’ll be an honor to be on your “list”, as the main goal is to protect human lives from illness.
flatbushantivaxxer-There has been a considerable share of lawsuits in the secular courts from anti-vaxxers against Jewish organizations regarding vaccination policies. This is time, money, and effort redirected away from Torah, Rabbeim salaries, and time & devotion to the students learning. Here is one particular lawsuit quoted from the papers “Sholom and Esther Laine filed an emergency injunction in Kings County State Supreme Court on October 17th, saying that while they understood that state law required their four year old son to be immunized in order to attend Yeshiva Oholei Torah, they believed that they were legally entitled to an exemption based on their religious beliefs. ”
….. It’s not new that you consider many medical professionals to be liars, many roshei yeshiva and Rabbonim to be liars, and Jewish organizations to be liars. It’s no secret, as you have explicitly verbalized such immature disrespect in the past. I’m actually still waiting for you to give YWN and myself the contact information from “Big Pharma” on how we can get paid for our “pro-vaccination” statements. You’ve said in the past that YWN has gotten paid, can you please forward the financial accounting documents? YWN will post the documents once you submit it. There are many worthy tzedaka organizations who would benefit, so please provide the information.
> flatbushantivaxxer
“Mr or Mrs. Bulldozer. Who is the thug? I am not forcing you to vaccinate or not vaccinate. ”
From a “big picture” viewpoint that is not true.
If everyone vaccinated properly (unfortunately that means the whole world) many diseases would be eliminated (okay, so flu and cold will still be around). Once eliminated, there would be no more vaccinations for the eliminated diseases. So those who are not being part of the solution, they really are de facto forcing everyone to vaccinate to protect themselves from diseases that should have been eliminated.
And for Lakewood, the halachic decision is now 100% clear. HaGaon hoRav Shlomo Miller, rosh beis din of the Beis Horaah in Lakewood, has issued a Kol Koreh stating, “there is a halachic obligation on parents to vaccinate their children on the timetable recommended by their pediatrician and/or family physician.” So for anyone who has been saying there is no p’sak on this, there is now! So now, we have a p’sak Torah and the recommendation of all doctors and all major medical organizations. B”H, there is absolutely no acceptable excuse for anyone not to vaccinate short of a medical contraindication. The argument is over-time for all to get vaccinated!!!
As frum jews, this is a question of what is the Halacha; what does HaShem want but I do not hear any of that in these discussions. If the vast majority of Rabbiem and Gedolem have stated that it is our obligation to get vaccinated, we are obligated to do so except for specific medical reasons as stated by expert. Antivaxxers, do you think we do not need to follow our Rebbiem or do you know better?
If you think you know better than the Poskim, you are undermining our entire religion and if you think you know better that 99+% of the medical field, you must know more than them. It must be very lonely to think you know better than our Torah and all these doctors.
Georgeg – you are on target. Smallpox, which used to be a terror for the world (it even played a role in bringing down the Roman Empire) was eliminated by vaccination campaigns. That’s why we no longer vaccinate against it. I was vaccinated against it as a child in the early 1950s, but it is now eradicated. Polio would have been eradicated by now but there are groups of anti-vaxxers in Muslim(!) countries like Pakistan and parts of Nigeria where under the guidance of some local imams people refuse to vaccinate.
Diseases which hide out in animals or birds (like flu, which is actually primarily a disease of birds!) can’t be, but measles, polio and others can be. So why are the anti-vaxxers of all groups holding this up?
Government intruding into PRIVATE schools and homes is never a good thing. Are all Yeshivos and mosdos up to date with their gender neutral bathrooms? Do they all have safe spaces? Do they clearly have posted, options on contraception choices? I’ve seen them in local Public Schools. What about Mitzitza bipeh? Bris Mila? Modesty signs in stores? Baking cakes for gay couples? Etc etc… Be careful what you ask for.
TGIShabbos : Loved your post! Couldn’t be more true. Any supposedly frum Jew who sues Jewish organizations, rabbonim, and gedolim should be put in Cherem and excluded from Shuls and all Frum activities. (It will have the added benefit of keeping their unvaccinated kids out of contact with normal kids. )