How would you answer these Covid vaccine questions?

smss

Mon, Mar 01 2021, 9:39 am

amother [ Ruby ] wrote:

OP, how dare you think for yourself!

Really, this is what a local rabbi told my husband when he raised some of those questions. He told DH that he had no right to do his own research and have his own opinion, that he was halachically obligated to follow mainstream opinion and vaccinate. B"H not our rov and we don't have to listen.

Ok people are NOT going to like this but here's the thing:
-the average person who has not spent years upon years in school learning how to read and interpret research has NO BUSINESS "doing their own research." You know what the research shows will happen when you "do your own research"? You come out holding the same opinion you did when you started, only stronger. It's called confirmation bias, you will find what you want to see.
-That doesn't mean you can't ask questions. I personally find this stuff fascinating so I follow a lot of scientists/public health professionals/infectious disease researchers on Instagram and learn a LOT from them. But you gotta be asking your questions to the right people, and have the humility to realize that you alone have probably not thought of a potential concern that ALLLL the doctors/scientists/researchers/FDA/CDC just missed.
-When the VAST MAJORITY of EXPERTS IN THE FIELD (I'd argue 100% of *actual* experts in the field) recommend a course of action for the sake of public health - YES that becomes your chiyuv under ונשמרתם, לא תעמד על דם רעיך, and the biggest biggie of them all - פיקוח נפש.

amother

Ruby

Mon, Mar 01 2021, 9:49 am

smss wrote:

Ok, so I'm too stupid to do my own research and anyone I find who is against the vax is the wrong expert. regardless of how many degrees he or she may have in science fields, including virology. Got it.

I think I'll go bang my head against a wall. It's more pleasant than this conversation.

amother

Lilac

Mon, Mar 01 2021, 9:54 am

amother [ Ruby ] wrote:

You aren't stupid.

You are also not set-up to do vaccine research.

SixOfWands

Mon, Mar 01 2021, 10:27 am

[quote="cutestbaby"]Here's another jewel by the same guy just FYI

Quote:

It is forbidden to distance yourself from loved ones, friends, and strangers because you are afraid their breath or touch will kill you, or that yours will kill them, when you have no concrete reason to believe anyone is infected.

Not according to most rabbis. Most rabbis have urged us to continue social distancing.

https://www.thejc.com/communit.....11399

https://www.jpost.com/israel-n.....54205

https://www.ou.org/covid19/

(And if I missed your particular group, its because there are just too many rabbis saying exactly the same thing to find them all.)

Quote:

My fellow Jews, this is the condition that has overtaken almost all of us. We are tormented by normal human behavior and social company, terrified that every breath or touch might kill us. This is not an appropriate reaction to a virus, even to a severe virus. It is a mental illness, and it is destroying us.

No, covid is killing us. People who call taking basic precautions "mental illness" -- thereby diminishng both the toll of the disease AND mental illness -- are what are killing us.

Quote:

It is indeed remotely possible that shaking hands, kissing a Torah, going to work, opening a business, riding a bus, and other such basic human behaviors will indirectly be the cause of our death. However, according to the Torah we are not allowed to worry about such things – even when there is a virus going around.

Completely untrue. See above.

imasinger

Mon, Mar 01 2021, 10:40 am

The example this writer gave in the second article of his "heroics" is weak, as are the conclusions.

Most frum women don't shake hands with each other in greeting. And they don't shake hands with men. Does that mean we're all sick inside and brain dead?

Or is the issue that an unknown virus caused shutdowns and a lot of fear, as the world learned how to handle a pandemic in this day and age?

The thinking as expressed in the second article is an unhappy mixup of cause and effect.

I am glad to hear the author hopes neither to get the virus, nor give it. And I wonder at the wilfull blindness that allows him to act as if there were no Covid in the world because after all, it only harms a small percentage of the population.

Most people hated the shutdowns and economic damage. That's not unique to his perspective.

Most reasonable people will get vaccinated when possible from such a contagious and deadly disease, and do what they can (masks, SD) to keep others safe as needed.

To do none of the above is unsafe and unreasonable. Which is insanity.