The argument for and against vaccinating one’s children is not a new one, with each side confident in its position and parents assured they are doing their utmost to safeguard their most precious possession, their children.
With that being the case, Dr. Samuel Katz, who was a member of the team that developed the measles vaccine about a half century ago is quoted sending a clear message to the frum community, to please vaccinate children against the illness. Katz is quoted by the Time of Israel, explaining communities that do not vaccinate their children are linked to one-third of all measles cases in the United States last year.
For Dr. Katz, the only living member of the team of researchers that developed the vaccine it is simple – get vaccinated. He calls it “ludicrous” that parents opt out, which may come at the expense of one’s own children or neighbors. Dr. Katz is not just being benevolent in his message, for his is concerned by the realization there were175 cases of measles reported in the USA in 2013, tripling the annual average. That is to say that today; decades after the disease was under control in the United States we see its return despite the fact we have a vaccination that can prevent this.
The report cites that 58 cases in the US were found in chareidi areas, Williamsburg and Boro Park, which represents the largest measles outbreak in the United States since 1996!
According to Dr. Katz, there are still 25,000 cases worldwide, so one must realize the numbers are relative but nevertheless, there is a prophylactic treatment available to all. Katz explained to the Times of Israel that the cases in the United States were “imported” from other countries. This was confirmed by studying the genetics of the virus.
According to the Center of Disease Control, last year’s outbreak in New York’s frum community was the result of one 17-year-old male who intentionally was not vaccinated importing it from abroad, in that case from England.
It should be cited that among those diagnosed with the illness in the US, 21% were among children who were too young to be vaccinated. So we see that persons not vaccinating also pose a risk to others if and when they import the illness. Baruch Hashem there were no fatalities associated with outbreak in NYC, there were complications including a miscarriage and pneumonia as well as the need for hospitalization.
Katz explains the need for parents to get credible information when making their decision regarding vaccinating. The Time of Israel reports “Many attribute the high rate of measles infection in Western Europe in part to the now-discredited report by Andrew Wakefield, a British former doctor who was disbarred after he published a fraudulent 1998 paper in The Lancet claiming a link between the MMR vaccine and autism”.
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12 Responses
How much did he get paid to say this? The fact is – the more people research, the LESS likely they are to give this shot. Most ignoramus’ just listen to whatever the doctor says. Just think about it.
To Boggle
You are a Sakana. Educate yourself. I have examined the literature and most anti-vaccination proponents are looking at studies from 50 years ago.
Anyone who does not want to vaccinate and thus puts others at risk (especially infants and those with reduced immune systems) should go live on an Island away from the rest of us. If anyone comes from England, they should not be let in without a immunization certificate.
If 1/3 of the cases of Measles in the US is in the Chareidi community and from one infected individual, what will happen if more do not vaccinate?
I love the illiterates that do research problem is they only read to non sense in blogs I don’t care but keep your kids out of school play groups and shule I don’t need to get sick because you are mentally un balanced and naive
More die from smoking than from not getting vaccinated!!!!!
To #4. And more people die of heart attacks. So what exactly is your point. There is not one credible report that links vaccinations to autism or to anything else for that matter. By not taking the vaccine not only do you put yourself at risk but others also. If 1/3rd of the total cases in the US came from the frum areas that tells me that there is a serious lack of education in this regard.
If frum communities in Brooklyn – less than 1% of the US population – constitute 33% of all US cases of measles vaccine, maybe the City health department should stop and frisk and vaccinate. It may be a violation of their rights, but it protects them and the public as a whole.
We are living in the age of disinformed consent. Parents assume their doctors and their public health authorities are providing them with all relevant vaccine information, and nothing could be further from the truth.
Obviously, if vaccines can kill and cause serious and debilitating lifelong damage – which they can, and do – the vaccine administrator must provide that information to the client, in unambiguous fashion, regardless of the estimated size of the risk. It’s an ethical mandate that must be fulfilled, but it never is. There is a fundamental reason: medical schools don’t teach the history and nature of vaccine damage and death; nor do nursing and pharmacy schools. Yet doctors, nurses, and, these days, pharmacists, are the very ones who administer vaccines, and upon whom we rely for full information. Somewhere there is made a conscious decision to exclude the reality of serious vaccine damage from the curricula.
Step Aside “Step Aside”
Are you ready to take responsibility for blindness, deafness and death that can be the side effects of Measles. Should we all live in fear of a polio epidemic or listen to a child with whooping cough? Or sterility when teenage boys come down with the mumps?
This is the premise of the entire vaccine industry: no vaccine can ever, under any circumstances, cause harm. All vaccines are beneficial and have no serious side effects. All children should be required by the state to take vaccines because all vaccines are absolutely safe, and so on and so forth. Vaccine safety is assumed to be absolute!
The people who make these statements are pathetic excuses for scientists, DOCTORS and public health “officials.” They lack intelligence. They are incapable of clear thinking. Their brains are damaged, perhaps from vaccines. Why do I say that? Because the term “safe” is an absolute term.There is no such thing as a “safe” vaccine because there is no such thing as a vaccine without risk. Anyone who claims “vaccines are safe” and actually believes it is either woefully uninformed or deeply mentally impaired.
Certainly, you can talk about certain vaccines being “safer” than other vaccines in terms of relative risk, but there is no such thing as a vaccine that offers absolute safety. Yet this is the way vaccines are routinely described by doctors and public health officials… and anyone who dares to raise the legitimate question of levels of risk or harm that can be reasonably attributed to the injection of mercury into the body of a child is instantly labeled a lunatic by the medical mafia (actually a cult of reductionism).
You see, it is an undeniable, scientific fact that every vaccine comes with a risk of serious injury or death, and as tens of thousands of parents are discovering each year in the USA alone, vaccines can also pull the trigger on a cascading collapse of neurological function that we now call “autism spectrum disorder.” To describe vaccines as functioning without risk is to label yourself an idiot, a quack, or a shill for the vaccine industry. Perhaps all 3!
Thanks to our Mayer of NYC – With Last weeks vote, the NYC Board of Health has just declared NYC will be the capitol of autism in America.
Maybe it’s me but I don’t see anybody bringing any credible FACTS pro or against vaccination. Calling your opponents names and questioning their integrity and mental capacity are good for politics but not in intelligent discussion.
Given that there are a lot of ethical issues with big pharm industry, let not forget that the fact that medical advances do save millions of lives and improve quality of life. How many would decline using antibiotics due to toxic epidermal necrolysis which kill about one third of its victims and practically unpredictable till it happens. Would you go to restaurant where they put a poster: We are not responsible if you choke and die while on our premises? Talk to you doctor about your concerns and if you don’t get an answer – think if your doctor up to date.
BTW the fact that big pharm makes a lot of money is irking some people, but let me share an episode which I experienced while visiting former Soviet Union as a physician: There was a patient with meningococcal meningitis, lo aleinu, and they have to make a decision should they give full dose of antibiotic but for less days or lower dose for a whole treatment period. That’s the social medicine in action. My hopes and prayers that we’ll not gonna get there.
The safety of shots for young children has been a heated debate over the last several decades; however, statistical studies show that the flu shot offers little protection for children, if any. Other studies have shown that children who get the influenza vaccine are up to three times more likely to receive hospitalization for the flu than those avoiding it all together. While worried parents continue to voice their concerns over links from the flu
shot to the onset of autism in children, the CDC contends that the practice is completely safe, recommending double doses for children under 9 who are new to the shot.
According to the CDC, the flu shot contains hazardous chemicals such as thimerosal (mercury), sodium phosphate and formaldehyde, while recorded side effects include severe allergic reactions, seizures, Guillain-Barre syndrome and death. Health authorities claim that benefits of the shot outweigh the risks; critics however are quick to note that doctors and nurses without employer mandates are among the least likely to actually receive the yearly vaccine.