Crucial Public Health Decision Made By Haredi Leader Reflects Problems Of Haredi Leadership

Should people be immunized for H1N1 (Swine) Influenza?

Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky is a leading haredi rabbinic leader (gadol) and the son-in-law of 99-year-old haredi leader Rabbi Yosef Shalom Elyashiv.

He was asked by Dr. Oron Halpern, head of the Yithak Rabin Memorial Hospital, about taking the H1N1 vaccine. Here is Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky's answer to that pressing question:

…Rav Chaim responded that he heard from a shliach [representative] who went to the home of [haredi number two gadol] Rav Aharon Leib Shteinman that the shots are dangerous and that, in this situation, a “shev ve’al taaseh” approach is appropriate.

Dr. Halpern told Rav Chaim that only a minority of the population have taken these flu shots. Rav Chaim replied that there is no need to take it, as he has heard from several sources that they can be harmful.…

That millions have been vaccinated worldwide, and that very few people were damaged by those vaccinations plays no role in Rabbi Kanievsky's decision making process. Neither, it seems, do the increasing number of H1N1 deaths in Israel.

No consultation with medical experts. No consultation with public health experts. No science, no medicine. Just a calculation made with anecdotal evidence.

And people will surely die as a result.