COVID remains a global healthcare pandemic. It’s a worldwide problem and continues to wreak havoc on the world. Further complicating the ability to move forth is those who don’t receive the vaccine.
Wrongly, however yesterday on “CBS This Morning” Dr. Anthony Fauci was discussing herd immunity, and said we had over 90% immunity to measles but NYC had “Hassidic Jewish People” who were the cause of the outbreak, by choosing not to vaccinate. Notably, he did not mention the NY Times headline which said only 28 percent of young blacks in NYC are vaccinated, or multiple studies which show that the biggest vaccine hesitancy is among African-Americans (a much larger population than “Hasidic Jews.”)
In a time of rising Anti-Semitism in America, one wonders why the need for a leading government official to point the finger at a specific sub-culture of a religious group? The reality is that countless leading Rabbis have discussed the necessity for religious Jews to get vaccinated, including proclaiming religious rulings.
In May, as Forbes reported there were extensive efforts to educate Hasidic Jews on the importance of the vaccine. Chabad.org, the official site of the largest Jewish organization in the world writes quite clearly “Guarding your own health doesn’t only make sense, it’s actually a mitzvah. That means that even if you don’t want to do it, for whatever reason, you are still obligated to do so,” and “Assuming that vaccinating when there is a high risk of catching a disease is similar to fleeing from an epidemic, then it’s mandatory for you to do it, and others can be compelled to do so as well.”
It is wrong on national TV to condemn “Hasidic Jews” and if Dr. Fauci did it with any other race or religion there would be a major uproar. If he singled out African-Americans there would be outrage – Fauci should apologize.