A growing number of haredim, including American haredi #2 Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetzky, oppose vaccines. Their opposition, and the opposition of various new age hippie groups and others, endangers the lives of millions of others. This video will explain why:
How ignorant are many haredi rabbis? This ignorant:
…R.B. reached out to Rabbi Shmuel Kamenetzky, founder and dean of the Talmudical Academy of Philadelphia, whose wife, Temi, speaks out against vaccinating children. The rabbi wrote a letter on R.B.’s behalf, leading to her son’s principal relenting and apologizing.
When reached by phone, both Kamenetzkys confirmed their belief that vaccinations, not the diseases they prevent, are harmful.
“There is a doctor in Chicago who doesn’t vaccinate any of his patients and they have no problem at all,” said the rabbi. “I see vaccinations as the problem. It’s a hoax. Even the Salk vaccine [against polio] is a hoax. It is just big business.”
Kamenetzky says he follows the lead of Israeli Rabbi Shmaryahu Yosef Chaim Kanievsky, who rules that schools “have no right to prevent unvaccinated kids from coming to school.”
“What about the people who clean and sweep in the school?” argued Kamenetzky. “They are mostly Mexican and are unvaccinated. If there was a problem, the children would already have gotten sick.”…
What Kamenetzky doesn't understand is herd immunity. When a society's immunization rate falls below a centain percentage (which varies for the communicable disease involved), waves of people become ill. When the vaccination rates are higher than the threshhold, this does not occur.
Kamenetzky and his buddies are essentially riding for free on the vaccination of others.
But sometimes one of the non-vaccinators get sick and then outbreaks happen in those communities. A measles outbreak in one non-vaccinating haredi community last year sickened children and caused at least one miscarriage.
If you want to know why haredi rabbis' ignorance endangers the lives of many people, watch this video from the PBS Nova program: