You have to admire anti-vaccine folks for one thing, they are consistent.
Well, actually, no.
Admire is the wrong word…
Did New York Declare Medical Martial Law over a Measles Outbreak?
As most folks know, Rockland County Executive Ed Day made an emergency declaration banning unvaccinated kids from public places.
I guess because he was anticipating a freak-out from anti-vaccine folks, he went out of his way to say that the emergency declaration does not mean that law enforcement will be asking for vaccine records and that they are just trying to get the attention of parents, some of whom weren’t cooperating when their kids were sick.
So what was the reaction?
About as you would expect…
Medical martial law? An emergency declaration saying you will get a class B misdemeanor if your unvaccinated kid goes to the mall is the same thing as martial law? Ordinary laws have been suspended and the military is taking over?
If you listened to the press conference, the problem isn’t really that we need new laws, it is that some folks aren’t cooperating with existing ones. Again, in the middle of the longest outbreak in recent history, some parents who have kids sick with measles aren’t talking to health department officials who simply want to control and stop the outbreak.
What else is wrong with the Natural News post?
Of course, it is the stuff about shedding and “improperly weakened viral strains.”
In truth, measles outbreaks are started when unvaccinated folks travel out of the country, get measles, and bring it back to a community with a lot of other unvaccinated people. And tragically, sometimes folks who are too young to be vaccinated or who have true medical contraindications to getting vaccinated get caught up in these outbreaks.
Did they listen to the press conference? When did he say that they would be going door-to-door?
Is it actually legal to tell folks to riot and incite them to open civil disobedience?
Surpriginsly, most went to straight to comments about Hitler and concentration camps.
This is the modern anti-vaccine movement.
These are the leaders and heroes of the anti-vaccine movement.
To be clear, rabbis in the community have been telling folks to get vaccinated and protected!
“Whoever isn’t vaccinated is a murderer” reads a rabbinic letter recently signed by leading charedi rabbis in Israel, according to Yeshiva World News. The kol koreh was distributed after a spread of Measles in the ultra-Orthodox communities in Israel and around the world. Earlier this month an unvaccinated infant died, and more than 1300 people have been infected with a preventable disease. The Gedolim who signed the Kol Koreh include: Rav Yitzchak Silberstein, Rav Shimon Ba’adani, Rav Sriel Rosenberg, Rav Moshe Shaul Klein Rav Menachem Mendel Lubin.
As Measles Spread, Leading Charedi Rabbis Come Out Strongly Against Anti-Vaxxers
I wonder what the people in these communities would think of all of this holocaust imagery that anti-vaccine folks are using to try and keep the outbreaks going?
It is very clear that this is not about religion.
“The Orthodox Union (OU) and the Rabbinical Council of America (RCA) strongly urge all parents to vaccinate their healthy children on the timetable recommended by their pediatrician.”
Statement on Vaccinations from the OU and Rabbinical Council of America
People in these communities have been misled and misinformed by anti-vaccine propaganda.
Don’t let them make it worse.
More on the Emergency Declaration in Rockland County
- VAXOPEDIA – The Rockland County Emergency Declaration
- VAXOPEDIA – What Do We Know About the Rockland County Measles Outbreak
- VAXOPEDIA – News on the Latest Measles Outbreaks of 2019
- VAXOPEDIA – Costs of a Measles Outbreak
- VAXOPEDIA – News on the Latest Measles Outbreaks of 2019
- Rockland County Measles Information
- Amid a Measles Outbreak, an Ultra-Orthodox Nurse Fights Vaccination Fears in Her Community
- How Orthodox Jewish Nurses Are Fighting ‘Anti-Vaccination Propaganda’ Targeting Their Community
- Measles Is Spreading in Orthodox Communities. Here Are 6 Things You Need to Know.
- Gal Gadot and Bar Refaeli Encourage Israelis to Get Measles Vaccine
- Parents Wanted Their Unvaccinated Children in Waldorf School, but a Judge Said No.
- What Does Jewish Law Say About Vaccination?
- Statement on Vaccinations from the OU and Rabbinical Council of America
- Vaccines, Hysteria, and Rabbinic Responsibility: A Plea from the Trenches
- Ending the current measles epidemic: Haredi rabbis get it right
- Senior haredi rabbis order followers to vaccinate their children
- Measles spike prompts letters from rabbis, government
- As Measles Spread, Leading Charedi Rabbis Come Out Strongly Against Anti-Vaxxers
- Vaccinations save lives