Orthodox Jews and the measles outbreak
When I first heard that the measles outbreak in New York was particularly bad among Orthodox (actually, ultra-Orthodox) Jews, I assumed it was because of some religious prohibition about vaccines in that group. That’s also what I read here and there in comments around the blogosphere.
But apparently it’s not true. There is no conflict between traditional Jewish law and vaccinations, even among the strictest sects.
So, what’s going on? It’s not easy to get an answer. But here’s an exceptionally interesting article:
… a careful look at the data available on vaccination rates in Orthodox Jewish communities, and reports by members of the community and their doctors, indicate that the Hasidic community is vaccinated on par with the rest of the city…
…[T]he vaccination rate [in Chasidic communities is] around 96 percent. The threshold for herd immunity for measles is presumed to be 93 to 95 percent.
That information also is supported by Jane Zucker, New York City’s assistant commissioner of the Bureau of Immunization. Zucker told Vox that most school-age children in the community are vaccinated at levels on par with other schools…
OJPAC also noted in a statement that in upstate Rockland County, where the Orthodox community is also in the midst of a measles outbreak, most schools now have a 95 percent vaccination rate for measles. One yeshiva had 100 percent compliance, as reported by health officials early in the outbreak.
So what really is going on?
The answer may lie in a combination of factors, including the large numbers of young children, delays in receiving the MMR, and vaccine failure.
OJPAC notes that large family size and frequent mingling during holiday and other events create an environment conducive to spreading an infection that is not present in other segments of society.
It’s worth noting here that the CDC has reported more than 400 cases of mumps in 34 states this year and that these outbreaks can occur in highly vaccinated populations, especially where people are in close contact with one another.
There’s also evidence that there’s a higher rate of delay in vaccination in this community:
“Williamsburg … has one of the lowest rates of vaccine coverage among young children, ages 19 to 35 months, in the city,” wrote Belluz.
Zucker told Vox, “We hear they want to wait until the child is older so they know the child doesn’t have autism, then get the child vaccinated.”
But that’s true in all communities these days—just thank the anti-vaxers.
There there’s this:
Another piece of the puzzle is vaccine failure. Recent data from the health department confirms that a known minority of cases are found in vaccinated people…
…[M]ultiple studies show that even two doses of measles vaccine do not appear to confer immunity in 2 to 10 percent of people, a phenomenon called primary failure. Secondary failure refers to the waning of immunity over time.
“Thus, measles outbreaks also occur even among highly vaccinated populations because of primary and secondary vaccine failure, which results in gradually larger pools of susceptible persons and outbreaks once measles is introduced.
But isn’t it much more attention-getting to blame the Orthodox Jews? Just to take one of many examples, this article seems to insinuate (without actually saying so, and without giving any hard facts, unlike the other article) that orthodoxy is to blame. This one, also from the Times, and headlined “‘Monkey, Rat and Pig DNA’: How Misinformation Is Driving the Measles Outbreak Among Ultra-Orthodox Jews,” talks a great deal about an anti-vaccine pamphlet being circulated among ultra-Orthodox Jews without giving the figures that in fact vaccination rates are typical among them, not atypical.
Even without articles like that, that’s a conclusion many people will come to on their own, erroneously—just as I initially did.
I don’t know if measles and other childhood diseases have become more virulent since i was a kid in the late ’40s and ’50s, but if there is a non-trivial risk of severe illness or death, Jewish law requires the supersession of all laws that would interfere, e.g., driving on the Sabbath, eating non-kosher food, not working on Shabbat or a holy day, with getting medical treatment.
On the other hand, since there were no vaccines in those days, everybody just got measles, mumps, chicken pox and other childhood diseases, and unless they were more serious, like rubella (German measles), or didn’t run the normal course, you just suffered through them. Maybe the Haradim think their kids should do the same. (Of course, we all had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches at least once a week, and nobody got a reaction. Try that today!)
Tight-knit communities–to use a euphemism here–are more likely to share genetic issues not common in the larger population. Could be an increased likelihood of vax failure.
The point is not really why ultra-Orthodox communities have higher rates of vaccine failure, or lower rates of early immunization, or communities with more opportunity to pass things along.
The point is: why is the Times making an issue of the disease outbreak (while carefully ignoring other, worse, ones), and relating it, apparently erroneously, to religious beliefs?
As usual with the Left, the Times seems to be pushing both sides of the button box with their insinuations, because IIRC most anti-vaxxers are actually on the left of the ideological spectrum, possibly because of the environmental-organic-natural living aspects (although the autism-hysteria may be more evenly distributed).
I’ll have to look it up now.
Thanks for this post and your research, Neo. I have wondered why this community is harder-hit than others, and I knew nothing about any prohibition on vaccination among Orthodox Jews. Close associations, people who’d traveled somewhere and picked up the illness en route, and just bad luck seem to be the causes. You’re right, it’s invidious to make it look like it’s something to do with the religion.
Also interesting — the part played by a pilgrimage last fall to the Ukrainian grave of Rabbi Nachman, founder of the Breslov branch of Hasidism.
The question is how effective the vaccine is after many years, and whether people who had the disease as children indeed have lifetime immunity.
Yes, Kate, people who had the disease as children do have life-long immunity. Immunity induced by vaccines is always not as strong. But it it strong enough to provide so-called herd immunity, preventing the outbreaks, but not necessary fully protecting all vaccinated individuals.
I am not surprised by outbreak of measles in Israel. Its health care system is seriously overloaded, with acute deficit of doctors and nurses. Hospitals are overcrowded, and serious reforms are needed. All the problems of socialized health care are present there.
Vaccines has already become too dangerous to be safe. They are also trying to tweak them around to adjust to the autism side effects as well as the epigenetic DNA changes going on in human conscious acceleration.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fil_fsdL4ZA
One of the media propaganda issues on the topic of what they call anti vaxxers, another fake news term, concerns the liability issue. If a child dies or suffers significant short term or long term damage from vaccination, who is legally liable?
Nobody apparently. But if you refuse, you are legally liable for damage, to the State. The State will enforce the Law, which means the parents go to jail.
That somehow makes sense to Americans that fall for media fake news.
The New York City Health Department declared a public health emergency on Tuesday, following a ‘measles outbreak’ said to be concentrated within the orthodox Jewish community in Brooklyn and Queens, starting in April and September, 2019, respectively.
The order requires mandatory MMR vaccination of unvaccinated infants (over 6 months) and children within four ZIP codes of Brooklyn’s Williamsburg section, where more than 250 people have been diagnosed with measles since September.
Mayor Bill de Blasio’s staff blamed “anti-vaxxers” for the outbreak, citing their spreading of false information. NYC health commissioner, Dr. Oxiris Barbot, stated: “This outbreak is being fueled by a small group of anti-vaxxers in these neighborhoods. They have been spreading dangerous misinformation based on fake science. We stand with the majority of people in this community who have worked hard to protect their children and those at risk. We’ve seen a large increase in the number of people vaccinated in these neighborhoods, but as Passover approaches, we need to do all we can to ensure more people get the vaccine.”
Vaccine safety advocacy advocates, such as Jennifer Margulis, PhD, have pointed out the bigoted term “anti-vaxxer” is applied to anyone who questions vaccine safety. She quipped earlier this month:
“Every time you see the words “anti-vaxxers,” know that the journalist or politican mispelled, “vaccine safety advocates.”
The order did not come without severe criticism. For instance, The New York Civil Liberties Union stated that the NYC Health Department’s order is illegal because it includes “forced vaccination.” The Daily Beast published the group’s official statement:
“Public health law authorizes the city to take action to address public health emergencies through containment and isolation of affected people.
“The City’s order provides that people will be vaccinated without their consent, an extreme measure which is not provided for in the law and raises civil liberties concerns about forced medical treatment.
“In addressing this public health crisis, the government is required to pursue the least restrictive means possible to balance individual autonomy with the public health risk. In this case, measures such as a quarantine or penalties for non-vaccination may be permissible, but forced vaccination is not.”
Additionally, Children’s Health Defense, an organization founded by Robert Kennedy, Jr., launched a legal challenge to restrain the order immediately, stating:
“While New York City unquestionably has the authority to isolate infectious individuals, and even to quarantine them, and to exclude unvaccinated children from schools during an outbreak in that school, it does not have the authority to require vaccination for all individuals on the basis of zip codes with vaccines that explicitly carry the risk of death. This government overreach requires challenge.”
The order applies to anyone living, working, or going to school in the proscribed areas, and while the city can not legally force someone to get a vaccination, the order states that failure to comply is “a misdemeanor for which you may be subject to civil and/or criminal fines, forfeitures and penalties, including imprisonment.”
Below is an except from the emergency order:
“ IT IS HEREBY ORDERED that any person who lives, works or resides within the 11205, 11206, 11221 and/or 11237 zip codes and who has not received the MMR vaccine within forty eight (48) hours of this Order being signed by me shall be vaccinated against measles unless such person can demonstrate immunity to the disease or document to the satisfaction of the Department that he or she should be medically exempt from this requirement.
IT IS FURTHER ORDERED that the parent or guardian of any child older than six months of age who lives, works or resides within the 11205, 11206, 11221 and/or 11237 zip codes and who has not received the MMR vaccine within forty eight (48) hours of this order being signed by me shall cause such child to be vaccinated against measles unless such parent or guardian can demonstrate that the child has immunity to the disease or document that he or she should be medically exempt from this requirement.
THIS ORDER shall remain in effect until the next meeting of the New York City Board of Health scheduled for April 17, 2019 at which time it may be continued or rescinded by the Board. Dated: April 9, 2019 Oxiris Barbot, M.D. Commissioner of Health
WARNING Failure to comply with this Order is a violation of §3.05 of the New York City Health Code, and a misdemeanor for which you may be subject to civil and/or criminal fines, forfeitures and penalties, including imprisonment”
The order remains in effect until the next meeting of the New York City Board of Health scheduled for April 17, 2019 at which time it may be continued or rescinded by the Board.
Sometimes you just got to Obey the State, Americans. Just sit back down and pay your IRS taxes.
http://www.greenmedinfo.com/blog/breaking-nyc-mandates-vaccination-brooklyn-amid-measles-outbreak-fine-imprisonmen
ymarsakar:
There are no autism side effects.
I know I will not convince you of that, however. Nor am I planning to turn the blog (or the blog comments section) over to lengthy discussions of vaccination in general, or of flat earth theories.
See this as well as this, however, on the issue of vaccination and autism.
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