Rav Asher Weiss

Introduction

Rav Asher (Osher) Weiss gave a shiur on The Obligation to Get Vaccinated, summarized here: Is It Permissible to Refrain from Vaccinating Children? The P’sak, based on the following assumptions, is that there is an obligation to vaccinate:

1. Vaccine caused deaths are unheard of; no one dies and any side effects are only minor and of temporary discomfort,
2. The danger of the disease is very, very significant,
3. Medicine today has much more required testing and is much safer than it was years ago.

The following addresses some of the claims the Rav makes in his P’sak, based largely upon the facts presented in the Rodef Shalom 613 presentation, My Vaccine Journey.

Claims and Counterclaims

 

Rav Weiss’s claim (RAW):

Those (Measles, etc.) are serious illnesses

Rodef Shalom 613 (RS613) Counterclaim:

In 1967 measles was not considered a cause for concern:  “For centuries the measles virus has maintained a remarkably stable ecological relationship with man. The clinical disease is a … syndrome of notable constancy and only moderate severity. Complications are infrequent, and, with adequate medical care, fatality is rare.”

 

RAW:

Rabbonim against vaccination argue “Why put the child through some (presumably mild) distress now vs. some future uncertain distress”.  R. Weiss disagrees.

RS613:

Much evidence exists showing that the damage from vaccines is worse, potentially far worse, than any benefit.

 

RAW:

Edward Jenner – inventor of Smallpox vaccine was called a “Chassid” by Tiferes Yisroel who recommends the smallpox vaccine.

RS613:

It is common for major Poskim to rely on the science of the day (as we do today and as Rav Weiss does by asking doctors he trusts). However, we know that scientific facts are clarified, modified, and even discarded over time. The Rav also quotes Sefer Alei Terufah which recommends bloodletting.

By examining the historical record, it is not clear the extent that the smallpox vaccine had with eliminating smallpox. Also see the book, Dissolving Illusions by Dr. Susan Humphries.

 

RAW:

Shelah HaKodosh, said that healthy children should leave the disease area and go to the countryside.

RS613:

Correct. The Tzu-shtel is that healthy children should leave. Not to force those who are healthy, but simply don’t want the risk of vaccination, to leave. Or to coerce them to get a vaccine.

 

RAW:

230 years ago – R. Avrohom Hamburg – Aley Terufa – lost two children, and he writes that other Rabbonim during his time were against smallpox vaccination. He says that while 1/ 1,000 might die from the vaccination, the risk of not vaccinating is greater.

RS613:

That was his opinion. Other Rabbonim disagreed. Possibly because of the math. If you vaccinate the entire population of 2 million people and 1/1,000 die, there would be 2,000 vaccine deaths.  Compare that with the ~1,000 smallpox deaths annually in England and Wales from the 1700’s to early 1800’s.

 

RAW:

Vaccine caused deaths are unheard of; no one dies and any side effects are only minor and temporary discomfort.

   RS613:

Although “authorities” want us believe this, it is simply not true.  They are pointing to proven-false information and sources. There is a wide ranging debate on the number of deaths but there clearly are deaths admitted to by the CDC; the vaccine court paid over $4 billion in claims of serious injury and death; and unfortunately, death from vaccines is found in the frum community as well.

 

RAW:

The danger of the disease is very, very significant

RS613:

Even with low rates of vaccination, a person in the US is far more likely to die from getting hit by a bolt of lightning (20 times/year). In fact, getting the measles has been found to  strengthen the immune system, provides lifetime immunity, enables mothers to confer immunity to their infants and has been found to prevent certain cancers.

 

RAW:

Medicine today has much more required testing and is much safer than it was back then

RS613:

While true in general as pharmaceutical companies are required by the FDA to conduct years-long double-blind studies, vaccines are an exception and DO NOT require double-blind studies. Vaccine studies are conducted typically over a 7-15 day period. There is not a single study testing the safety of multiple vaccines (currently over 50) given to children. See Dr. Shahar articles for devastating information.

 

RAW:

The working assumption of the P’sak is that the risk is extremely remote (1/100,000 or less) AND The danger to your child and other children from the measles is great.

RS613:

These assumptions are both verifiably incorrect as described above.

 

RAW:

Rav Weiss calls the fact that some Rabbonim say that vaccines cause autism a “ridiculous argument”.

RS613:

There are many hundreds of studies and hundreds if not thousands of Doctors who believe that vaccines cause a multiplicity of harmful effects… more harm than good. Their concerns are not dependent solely on autism and not on Dr. Andrew Wakefield’s study. The Wakefield study appears to be a straw-man argument to convince researchers that there is nothing here to look at. We will briefly address the claims.

 

RAW:

Rav Weiss goes on to claim regarding the maligned Wakefield study:

1. Wakefield was bribed
2. He was a crook
3. A pharmaceutical company gave him money because they wanted to make billions of dollars by selling three vaccines instead of one
4. Was based on totally flawed research
5. Data was intentionally distorted
6. His license was revoked
7. Risk of vaccines has no scientific basis whatsoever

RS613:

As can be provided if needed, none of these claims were true and Wakefield was exonerated by the Lancet itself 

The only accurate portion of the statement is that his license was revoked during the initial claim process. His partner’s insurance paid for legal fees and he was fully exonerated and his medical license reinstated, Wakefield did not have such coverage and decided to focus his energy on vaccine education and awareness.

It also seems highly unlikely that the person most hated by vaccine companies was hired by them so “they could make billions”. This was not even in the claims made by the pharma-funded campaign against him.

 

RAW:

We don’t even know of one case of death linked to vaccines

RS613:

The CDC site itself admits to “rare” cases of death. There are verified cases of frum children who died from vaccines. (A meeting with parents can be arranged.)

 

RAW:

If we don’t vaccinate children, children will die.

RS613:

Not necessarily true; with the outbreaks we’ve had in the US, there are typically zero or sometimes one death in the entire US annually. That is a 1 in 600 million chance of dying. And proper care and vitamin A could probably prevent even that one.

 

RAW:

In Yerushalayim, one child has died, and some might have long-term complications.

RS613:

According to an interview in Makor Rishon with the baby’s brother, the baby had Down syndrome and a pre-existing heart condition. He reported that the baby had already fully recovered from the measles and had actually died from dehydration. (Note that such an ill baby did NOT die from the measles!). (Email me to be introduced to people who can verify this.)

 

RAW:

Babies are exposed before they are old enough to be vaccinated

RS613:

A valid concern. Before the vaccine, women who got measles as children (during the safe ages of 5-20 years) gained lifelong immunity and could confer immunity to their babies, which protected them until the babies’ own immune systems developed (first 12 months or so). This is why it was uncommon for babies, and adults, to get the measles.

 

RAW:

We don’t know critical mass (of herd immunity?) so we don’t know what percent can avoid vaccinating before we have a problem.

RS613:

Because the MMR has a known 2%-10% failure rate, and they only last 2 – 20 years, 95% of adults are just as unvaccinated as any unvaccinated child. Including most Rabbonim and Menahalim who are kicking kids out of school and shuls. In fact, the percentage needed to confer herd immunity has been revised-up many times. There is much scientific documentation invalidating the “Herd Immunity” theory.

 

RAW:

All arguments about the terrible effects of vaccination have totally no basis and are void of substance.

RS613:

There is overwhelming documented evidence of severe negative effects. Unfortunately, since “authorities” (many with vested interests in vaccine production and profits) are adamant that there are no serious adverse effects; most people, including doctors, are not willing to look closely at what they have been led to believe in order to determine whether it is actually based on misinformation. Were they to listen to the doctors who take issue with vaccines, or to biochemists who specialize in toxicity, they would understand that serious adverse events are real and not rare.

 

RAW:

Before these vaccinations were developed, thousands upon thousands of children perished.

RS613:

Perhaps in the distant past before improvement in sanitation and human waste disposal systems. Not in the US just prior the introduction of vaccines as seen on the chart. And Scarlet Fever and Typhoid for which there were never vaccines, are largely eliminated.

 

RAW:

There is no Autism Epidemic. We recently started classifying them properly.  We used to just call them Mishugaim.

RS613:

In chapter one of How to end the autism epidemic by JB Handley, he comprehensively proves that this is simply not true. Here are a few examples:

• • The CDC currently says that 1 out of 36 children are autistic. If that was always the case, you would see homes for autistic adults the way we have for children. And you don’t.
  • In the Archives of General Psychiatry in 1970, Dr. Darold Treffert, an epidemiologist, used Wisconsin data on all 899,000 children in the state. He established a baseline autism rate of 0.7 per 10,000. And in 2015, Dr. Treffert made it clear that he is “convinced there is an actual increase in the disorder. And part of the increase is due to environmental factors.” Note that the first epidemiologist to analyze the autism rate in 1970 feels there is an increase due to environmental factors.
  • The National Collaborative Perinatal Project published in 1975 was one of the most comprehensive prospective studies ever conducted, following 30,000 children from birth to eight years old. They screened the children nine separate times for a wide range of language and mental factors. Dr. E. Fuller Torrey used this data to identify 14 children with autism or 4.7 per 10,000 vs. today’s rate of 277 per 10,000.
  • A Prevalence Study of Pervasive Developmental Disorders in North Dakota in 1987. Researchers looked at 180,000 children and determined the autism rate was 3.3 per 10,000.

 

AND WHAT ABOUT IN ISRAEL?

With regard to the Rav’s home state of Israel, there have been no deaths from measles in the last 15 years, and as we have seen, the one death attributed this year to measles was actually not from the measles.

I would strongly recommend that the Rav watch an expose about a recalled experimental Hepatitis B (Sci B) vaccine that injured thousands of children in Israel – See expose with English subtitles 

Also, read the following CDC studies about outbreaks in highly vaccinated populations in Israel:

Measles Outbreak in a Highly Vaccinated Population — Israel, July–August 2017

Pertussis Infection in Fully Vaccinated Children in Day-Care Centers, Israel

Ongoing mumps outbreak in Israel, January to August 2017

Conflicts of Interest

Rav Weiss is the rav of Shaarei Tzedek Hospital in Jerusalem which advocates for vaccines.
Rav Weiss’s Kollel is supported by Rabbi Dovid Fuld and through that Rav Weiss. Rabbi Fuld is so radical when it comes to vaccines that he takes the extreme and dangerous view that parents who don’t vaccinate their children should have their children taken away.