New York’s Orthodox Jewish Community is Battling Measles Outbreaks. Vaccine Deniers Are to Blame.
Vox’s Julia Belluz reports that anti-vaccine advocates have fueled hundreds of cases of measles in New York, prompting health officials in Rockland County to declare a state of emergency on Tuesday. The cases of measles are occurring largely in isolated Orthodox Jewish communities, which have been targeted by anti-vaccine propagandists. Belluz writes, “The fearmongerers include a group called PEACH — or Parents Educating and Advocating for Children’s Health — which appears to be targeting the Jewish community with misinformation about vaccine safety, citing rabbis as authorities, through a hotline and magazines. Brooklyn Orthodox Rabbi William Handler has also been proclaiming the well-debunked link between the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine and autism.”