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This is a special OZY briefing, an extension of the presidential daily briefing. The special briefing tells you what you need to know about an important problem, an individual or a story that is in the news. Each of them serves an interesting selection of facts, opinions, images and videos to catch you and protect you.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
What is happening? The US Centers for Disease Control have recorded the highest number of measles cases in the United States this year – 695 – since the disease was declared eradicated in 2000. This disturbing trend is the refusal of some ultra-Orthodox Jewish communities in New York, who have the anti-vaxxeurs, to immunize their children. This has contributed to a confrontation between local health officials and the faithful, raising an important question at the heart of the worsening epidemic: what is the boundary between the guarantee of freedom of religion and public security?
Why is it important? Lawmakers in the states of New York and New Jersey, as well as Maine and Oregon plan to take steps to end religious exemptions for immunization. This would place them among only three other states – California, West Virginia and Mississippi – that currently offer no non-medical waiver (17 states allow personal or moral exemptions). If these states succeed in imposing compulsory vaccination, it may encourage others to do the same. But Arizona and West Virginia are moving in the opposite direction by considering expanding religious exemptions or adding others to their books. Meanwhile, at 2.2%, the exemption rate from personal beliefs and personal beliefs is still low – but it has increased over the past three years.
How to think about it
Clash in New York. Declaring an emergency this month, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio ordered mandatory vaccination in affected neighborhoods – four Brooklyn postal codes accounting for 83 percent of the city's 390 cases – and a fine of $ 1,000 to anyone who did not obey. This led a group of parents to sue the city's health department, claiming that their "religious beliefs were ignored." But Rockland County, New York State, which has reported about three dozen new cases over the past four weeks, has gone even further. York and banished unvaccinated minors from all public places. This ban was blocked by a judge and later revised to include only those diagnosed with measles. If New York State legislators were able to enforce stricter rules, it would not be the first legal crackdown on religious exceptions: that's exactly how California authorities reacted to the outbreak of measles that erupted at Disneyland in December 2014.
But is it really about religion? Although some orthodox Jews in New York believe that vaccines – which contain traces of animal cells but are highly purified – violate the rabbinical law, no religious authority in view has spoken against them. Instead, experts say that the very insular nature of Hasidic communities lends itself easily to manipulation by opportunistic anti-vaxxers. They spread misinformation, such as claims that vaccination is the cause of autism, in people who are already deeply skeptical about modernity. "As a religious Jew, you also get used to having a minority point of view," said a leader of the Hasidic community in Vox. Epidemics have already manifested themselves in other religious communities: in 2014, the Amish of Ohio accounted for more than half of the 383 measles cases reported in the United States that year. However, according to a New Jersey senator, who has experienced a 38% increase in religious exemptions over the last four years, many people tend to use this loophole for personal and non-religious purposes.
Shots heard all over the world. Faith-based refusals of vaccination are not limited to the United States. After the Indonesian Council of Scholars published a fatwa against vaccines last summer, only 8% of children had been vaccinated in the only state of the country to apply Sharia law. In Japan, the authorities attributed part of the recent measles outbreak in that country – the largest in a decade – to the religious group Kyusei Shinkyo, whose members do not believe in medicine. It is interesting to note that even these diverse communities eventually came into line: the Indonesian Ulama Council reinstated its fatwa and Kyusei Shinkyo later apologized for its role in the Japanese epidemic. The World Health Organization (WHO) reported a 300% increase in measles cases in the first quarter of 2019; Apart from religious dissent, the WHO suggests that anti-vaxxers and social media are at least partly responsible for peaks in high- and middle-income countries.
TO READ
My Hbadidic Jewish colleagues make a terrible mistake in vaccination, by Moshe Friedman in the New York Times
"While infections related to this epidemic are spreading as far as Michigan, I can not help but wonder what pushed some of us to reject basic science, to embrace quackery and to treat objective truths as if they were only suggestions. "
The fight against measles in the nearest communities, by Sumathi Reddy in the Wall Street Journal
"Among the Amish, it seems that the risk of measles is poorly understood," she says. According to experts, with the Somalis of Minnesota, MMR vaccine causing autism was a fear, although many studies have shown that this was not the case. Eastern Europeans living in Washington State are suspicious of the government and its motives for vaccinating people, say community members. "
WHAT TO LOOK
Ultra-orthodox community reacts to measles vaccine
"People are starting to wonder," Why should I subject my 3-year-old to toxins when it will not protect him? ""
Watch on Associated Press on YouTube:
When religion and vaccines conflict
"Traditionally, we have not forced citizens of this country to benefit from health care that goes against their religious beliefs. So I think the mayor is 100% right, but he probably found a bit of a muscular way to solve the problem. "
Watch the news on YouTube:
WHAT TO SAY AT WATERCOOLER
Swear on it. Although the requirements for obtaining religious or personal exemptions vary from state to state, some people request a signed affidavit stating their belief. Delaware for example asks religious seekers to state that their "belief is sincere and meaningful and occupies a place [their] a life parallel to that fulfilled by the orthodox belief in God. But in 45 states, parents can send their unvaccinated children on a conditional basis without waivers by simply promising that they will be vaccinated.
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