OU/RCA Rabbanim support for the covid vaccine

amother

Crimson

Sun, Dec 20 2020, 3:07 am

OU/RCA letter wrote:

https://together.ou.org/page/guidance

The following is shared based on the guidance of our poskim, Harav Hershel Schachter שליט”א and Harav Mordechai Willig שליט”א, with the support of Harav Dovid Cohen שליט”א.

So they guided you and based loosely on that you wrote this and the third Rabbi said great idea write a letter?

We are grateful for the progress that has been made in vaccine development for COVID-19. הודו לד’ כי טוב כי לעולם חסדו.

Pat on back to happier times.

Halacha obligates us to care for our own health and to protect others from harm and illness. In addition, Halacha directs us to defer to the consensus of medical experts in determining and prescribing appropriate medical responses to both treating and preventing illness.

V'nishmartem, thanks for the reminder. Almost forgot it was a 613, not. Defer, interesting word choice, inaccurate, and what if we go by a second or third medical opinion?

There has long been an almost uniform consensus among leading medical experts that vaccines are an effective and responsible manner of protecting life and advancing health. For over two hundred years vaccinations have been responsible for the dramatic reduction of many terrible diseases and have significantly improved public health in our country and around the world. For this reason, the consensus of our major poskim (halachic decisors) is to encourage us to use vaccinations to protect ourselves and others from disease.

Thanks for the history lesson. 200 years is a big misrepresentation....leading to wrong assumptions when said that way

While this guidance of our poskim has addressed vaccine usage generally, the introduction of the novel COVID-19 vaccines required specific reconsideration. The poskim recognize that the COVID-19 vaccines have been developed with unprecedented speed and are expected to be made available under an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). In addition, the two currently leading COVID-19 vaccine candidates are mRNA vaccines which employ a new vaccine technology.

So...the poskim addressed general vaccines & you know they are aware of the speed & newness of mrna , what of ? that it uses new biotech? Or did they personally review the science?

Notwithstanding these factors, the conclusion of our poskim is that, pursuant to the advice of your personal health care provider, the Torah obligation to preserve our lives and the lives of others requires us to vaccinate for COVID-19 as soon as a vaccine becomes available.

So poskim said IF your dr says so, now wait a minute, the vaccine does NOT prevent you spreading it, so says pfizer & moderna. It only prevents a bad case for yourself. So which life are we obligated to save first our own or a second persons?

Our medical and scientific advisors have clarified that efforts to speed vaccine development to address the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic have not sacrificed scientific standards, the integrity of the vaccine review process, or safety. Rather than cutting corners, the acceleration has been achieved by marshalling unprecedented financial resources, creating multiple partnerships, and removing virtually all non-scientific bureaucratic hurdles. These efforts have not, however, involved a reduction in the appropriate safety standards or a decrease in the standard, multiple levels of scientific review.

Your medical & scientific advisers who are not the rabbis and also have no insider information, just the publicly printed stuff the rest of us can read believe that no shortcuts have been taken in this race for billions by the shrewd ceos and cfos (not the good willed scientists who do bits of things)...at least on public papers...

These efforts appear to have been successful beyond all expectations and have produced more than one vaccine with an unusually high rate of effectiveness with no indications of any significant risk. While no medical intervention can be considered risk-free, expert opinion is clear that the enormous benefits presented by these vaccines far outweigh their risks.

O, rate of effectiveness for what? Drug co's say you still are at risk for getting (less) sick & spreading it, (what is less sick for 98% of us asymptomic sick) No indications of any significant risk.....I guess you mean very short term risk.there is no medium or long term studies yet ( a needed part of fda approval)....but rates of death seem consistant with getting the virus itself. So you think that the "enormous" benefits outweigh the "plain" risks.

What if I check your math? My math might say if 1% of less than healthy people die of the virus but 2% of more than healthy people die of the vaccine, the enormous benefit of risking the virus outweighs the plain risk of increasing healthy peoples risk of becoming dead from the vaccine. Now apply it to the rest of the risks listed by the people making the government and drug company literature.

In consideration of the guidance of our poskim, we strongly encourage all those eligible to access the COVID-19 vaccination to do so. We hope and pray that such steps will help bring to an end the tragic toll that the pandemic has taken on our community and beyond.

So you considered what the pokim say and are going to imply how it should be understood. Goodwill, lets pray, it makes your inserted own interpretations based on the poskim seem like their absolute opinions. Notice, access it, dont inject it, this letter might be solely about kissing up for funds.

Per the guidance of our medical and scientific advisors, for those who have had the virus and an already demonstrated sustained antibody response the vaccine remains safe and potentially helpful but appears to be less necessary.

Thanks for that answer. You knew someone would point out the obvious. And not even going to, how about we give out mump vaccines to the people who already had mumps, seems potentially helpful.

We note that the availability and use of the COVID-19 vaccine will not immediately allow us to reduce adherence to current mitigation strategies, including social distancing, masking, and diligent hand hygiene. These practices must continue to be followed until official public health recommendations advise otherwise. As long as these practices remain in place it remains unnecessary to consider institutional policies or additional restrictions regarding the non-vaccinated.

Ok, you did not see what questions would be thrown at you for this? I hear a just do as your told.
And an implied sinister lets divide our community more down the line. I voted for naming the boxes "Covider Chassidim" versus "AntiCovider Chassidim". It should be a fun spectator sport.

This guidance is intended as general guidelines and should not be construed by any individual as, or be substituted for, medical or other professional advice. Personal decisions regarding the vaccine should be discussed with your healthcare provider. Moreover, this guidance is formulated based solely on currently available information. Events and information continue to evolve and may impact the applicability of this guidance.

Oh, so now legalese, we generally want you to take the vaccine so the goveners and mayors will be on our side and pass us funds to our mosdim. But really we have no business here, only your personal Dr and the live results of the stage 4 trials on the general population which will be one sidedly censored off msm & all sm should be your guide in doing #613.

We hope and pray that we will soon be blessed by Hashem to be able to come together comfortably and safely.

Only good thing you have said, amen.

So, to add mnsvh-we usually vaccinate-o, this letter says 2 things-first, it is not assur probably according to the three poskim to take if you are high risk if your & your drs sechel, binah, daas says it is the lesser of two evils for you. But please say some tehillim before you get stuck. And second- kiss up for cash.

Okay, throw some tomatoes but I am very happy to vent to you all. I feel much better for having vented.

You need a heter to do elective or experimental medicine. This is nothing short of major experimental.

Dear OU/RCA,

My neighbors teenager who has recovered from symptomless covid is being encouraged to take the vaccine because our dog and across the street neighbor who we pass once a week walking is a high risk. The Dr said you must follow mainstream medical opinion and my news station says you must take it because of dangers to elderly mailmen. The insert says its guaranteed to have a lighter case if teenager contracts it again. Lighter than symptomless, or even lighter symptomless! But of course we will still mask and sd because we can still give it to others if it is not light light enough. Is it okay they join stage 4 pre-fda-approval trials with this exciting new scientific adventure? We all want to guard our health but even more guard others health over our own health, it seems a bigger mitzvah to be selfless and disregard the original mitzvah.

Sincerely,
We care about everyone and do our most