Measles outbreak: How fake news is fueling a U.S. health emergency
“The Vaccine Safety Handbook” appears innocuous, a slick magazine for parents who want to raise healthy children. But tucked inside its 40 pages are false warnings that vaccines cause autism and contain cells from aborted human foetuses.
PEACH’s handbook — with letters signed by rabbis and sections like “Halachic Points of Interest” — has become one of the main vehicles for misinformation among ultra-Orthodox groups, including Hasidim. Its message is shared on hotlines and in group texts.“Vaccines contain monkey, rat and pig DNA as well as cow-serum blood, all of which are forbidden for consumption according to kosher dietary law,” Moishe Kahan, a contributing editor for PEACH magazine, said in an email.
In New York’s ultra-Orthodox community, the anti-vaccine movement has no clear leader. Jewish leaders have said its message has spread through grassroots activism and has gained ground largely because many Hasidim have limited access to the Internet or scientific research. Many of the vaccine sceptics cloak their rhetoric with scientific language, as did the speakers on the recent conference call.
The measles outbreak began in New York in October, after ultra-Orthodox Jews had returned from Israel where they were celebrating Sukkot, a Jewish harvest festival. They had prayed at the Western Wall, eaten in sukkahs and vacationed in the warm weather. The majority of ultra-Orthodox rabbis said they, too, urged vaccination, citing religious scripture about protecting one’s health and the health of others.Yosef Rapaport, a Hasidic journalist in Borough Park who has written about the importance of vaccination, said parents who do not want to immunise their children will seek rabbinical counsel that aligns with their views.
“Unfortunately, we are not immune to anti-vax people,” Dr Glatt said. “They’re found in every community, in every religion, and unfortunately, they’re vocal.” In the city, officials have prohibited unvaccinated children from attending schools in certain ZIP codes, predominantly in Williamsburg and Borough Park — an effort that has met mixed success.
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