When Rabbis Rule About Vaccines - Reading VAERS Reports
What I need from my rabbi is empathy. When I talk to him about vaccines, he doesn't listen. When I read the things written by very outspoken rabbis about vaccines, I shudder at the assumptions they make, both about me and about vaccines.
I am not a rabbi. However, I know that before issuing a ruling, a few things need to be considered.
1. Facts of the case. There are many facts which have to be considered: the realities, the truth, the people involved. One really needs to understand the issue at hand deeply. In order to do that, one must research all angles of information to help form one's opinion. In some cases, a rabbi might issue one ruling for one person or family, while ruling differently in very similar circumstances for a different person or family. There are considerations which sometimes can not be put into words.
2. Halachic knowledge. There is a world of halachic knowledge and precedent which informs rulings we make in our time. A rabbi who issues a psak needs to be cognizant of all that in order to apply it to whatever case we are dealing with currently.
The name calling is childish and abhorrent.
The assumptions made that "all studies that were done responsibly establish beyond the shadow of a doubt that, with the exception of mild side-effects, it is not at all common for vaccines to have severe ramifications, and there are no known cases where death was caused by vaccination for certain, even though hundreds of millions of children have been routinely vaccinated" is so false in every way.
The claim that people are dying everywhere from the measles is also false. (The following is only about death caused by vaccination, whereas people dying from measles will be discussed later)
See VAERS Reports
https://wonder.cdc.gov/controller/datarequest/D8
Section 1 select
Group Results: Event Category
Section 4 select
All Locations
Section 5 select
All events
Section 8 select
January year
December (same year)
to see the events reported in any given year.
VAERS has a Disclaimer which is understood (I highlighted the last sentence in bold) (see the follow up after the Disclaimer):
Vaccine Adverse Events Reporting System is based on parents watching their children have a reaction to a vaccine. These are not "anti-vaxxers." These are people who vaccinated and saw a problem afterwards.
It is known that VAERS is under-reported. And VAERS is sure to cover itself with another disclaimer. (see below) But even if a percentage of what is reported is true (though if things are under-reported, the numbers could be even more staggering), the rabbi can not make such a claim that vaccines carry minimal risk. "None of the above" means there was an adverse event, but it didn't fall into the higher up categories.
In short, rabbis are standing on very dangerous ground when they issue rulings that throw hundreds or even thousands of Jews out of the community, when their facts are wrong or misleading, and they haven't studied the complete picture.
I am not a rabbi. However, I know that before issuing a ruling, a few things need to be considered.
1. Facts of the case. There are many facts which have to be considered: the realities, the truth, the people involved. One really needs to understand the issue at hand deeply. In order to do that, one must research all angles of information to help form one's opinion. In some cases, a rabbi might issue one ruling for one person or family, while ruling differently in very similar circumstances for a different person or family. There are considerations which sometimes can not be put into words.
2. Halachic knowledge. There is a world of halachic knowledge and precedent which informs rulings we make in our time. A rabbi who issues a psak needs to be cognizant of all that in order to apply it to whatever case we are dealing with currently.
The name calling is childish and abhorrent.
The assumptions made that "all studies that were done responsibly establish beyond the shadow of a doubt that, with the exception of mild side-effects, it is not at all common for vaccines to have severe ramifications, and there are no known cases where death was caused by vaccination for certain, even though hundreds of millions of children have been routinely vaccinated" is so false in every way.
The claim that people are dying everywhere from the measles is also false. (The following is only about death caused by vaccination, whereas people dying from measles will be discussed later)
See VAERS Reports
https://wonder.cdc.gov/controller/datarequest/D8
Section 1 select
Group Results: Event Category
Section 4 select
All Locations
Section 5 select
All events
Section 8 select
January year
December (same year)
to see the events reported in any given year.
VAERS has a Disclaimer which is understood (I highlighted the last sentence in bold) (see the follow up after the Disclaimer):
Disclaimer
Please note that VAERS staff follow-up on all serious and other selected adverse event reports to obtain additional medical, laboratory, and/or autopsy records to help understand the concern raised. However, in general coding terms in VAERS do not change based on the information received during the follow-up process. VAERS data should be used with caution as numbers and conditions do not reflect data collected during follow-up. Note that the inclusion of events in VAERS data does not imply causality.
It is known that VAERS is under-reported. And VAERS is sure to cover itself with another disclaimer. (see below) But even if a percentage of what is reported is true (though if things are under-reported, the numbers could be even more staggering), the rabbi can not make such a claim that vaccines carry minimal risk. "None of the above" means there was an adverse event, but it didn't fall into the higher up categories.
These results are for 55,827 total events.
|
|
| ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Death | 443 | 0.79% | ||||||||||
| Life Threatening | 619 | 1.11% | ||||||||||
| Permanent Disability | 1,267 | 2.27% | ||||||||||
| Congenital Anomaly / Birth Defect * | 29 | 0.05% | ||||||||||
| Hospitalized | 4,414 | 7.91% | ||||||||||
| Existing Hospitalization Prolonged | 94 | 0.17% | ||||||||||
| Emergency Room / Office Visit ** | 921 | 1.65% | ||||||||||
| Emergency Room * | 4,469 | 8.01% | ||||||||||
| Office Visit * | 13,521 | 24.22% | ||||||||||
| None of the above | 34,767 | 62.28% | ||||||||||
| Total | 60,544 | 108.45% |
Note: Submitting a report to VAERS does not mean that healthcare personnel or the vaccine caused or contributed to the adverse event (possible side effect).
In short, rabbis are standing on very dangerous ground when they issue rulings that throw hundreds or even thousands of Jews out of the community, when their facts are wrong or misleading, and they haven't studied the complete picture.
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