Jewish measles

[Aryeh Shore]

About 10% percent of the US population is no longer vaccinated against measles. Some out of religious reasons and some of out an unsubstantiated fear of autism. This is possible if there is no big measles vector. However, the Cheredi community in Israel has a massive outbreak of measles and it is infecting the US population. We have not have had any deaths from measles in Israel but there have been 4 deaths this year from whooping cough.
Isn't there some sort of Jewish Halacha that people should get vaccinated and not kill theirs and other peoples children unnecessarily?

[Rabbi Joshua Waxman]

In terms of the above, the following data may be useful:

"They are also replicating the study in other populations. He did not expect to find different results, however, because a recent Israeli study showed that the incidence of autism in that country is the same as in the United States."

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/09/05/autism_study_...

So if the rate of autism is the same in Israel and the US, it would seem strange to attribute it to "Sin" in the US but not in Israel.

Meanwhile that same article mentions a study that links it to genetic factors, and specifically the factor of the father's age.
"The team considered several possible explanations for the findings, including spontaneous mutations in sperm-producing cells and alterations in genetic ``imprinting," which controls the genes that are activated during development.

Reichenberg said the team is now beginning trials to look for such gene changes in older men and their offspring."

This is different from a claim of "Sin" being the cause for the condition.

[Aryeh Shore]

"This is different from a claim of "Sin" being the cause for the condition."

Most religious people believe that bad things happen as the result of sin, either by themselves or some other sector of the population, e.g. children are killed when their bus gets run over by a train because someone else isn't observing the Shabbat (A famous statement by a Shas MP). This is a very annoying tendency. It is correct to assume that when bad things happen to you that you should examine your deeds but not when bad things happen to other people.
The problem is when it is applied to disease. If you say something inane like autism is a punishment for sin, how do you relate when the children of great Rabbis are affected.
It is equally hard for the general public to comprehend epidimological data and the nature of science reporting in the media don't help any. Actually the way these things are reported in the press, one would easily come to the conclusion that sin is a more probable explaination than the length of the telemeres.

[Holly Wolf]

Thank you Josh. Thank you for speaking clearly about what are in general anti-women and anti-gentile. In this wonderful topsy, turvy world of ours and Hashem's for these kinds of pronouncements. Once again, we need to make room for families with disabled children, support them and through good and determined scientific research, find the answers to questions about vaccinations and the schedules for administering them. From "refrigerator moms" to now "diseased wombs" it's all nonsense and isn't befitting a site dedicated to Torah and education.

Rabbi Joshua Waxman said:

The fact that it was about gentiles does not make it any less offensive to women. All that we add to the mix is that you are anti-gentile as well. And we know from before that you are anti-secular Jews as well.

I think it is troubling that your Judaism *seems* to be an excuse for looking down on other people and holding them in contempt, time after time after time. That is what it seems like to me -- I may be wrong -- but this is in part why I occasionally take a public stand against your more offensive pronouncements.

At any rate, as far I understand, there has been an increase in autism in the Jewish community, and the frum Jewish community, as well, such that this would seem to counter a claim that it is an "increase in Sin" that is causing it.