Hey, I wrote about vaccines again. How are you?

Another look at how failing to vaccinate your children is NOT a Jewish value, especially now when we’re teetering on the edge of losing our herd immunity. In Tablet Magazine this week, I listed the Personal Belief Exemption (PBE) rates in kindergarten classes at some Jewish day schools in California (using data from the California Department of Public Health). Now my fellow yehudim are having conniptions.

I do understand that having even 2 or 3 PBEs in a small class can make the opt-out rate look stratospheric. On the other hand, just 2 or 3 PBEs in a small class could be enough to compromise the health of that class.

I agree strongly with Rabbi Joseph Prouser of the Conservative movement’s Rabbinical Assembly: Jewish Day Schools can (and should) make immunization compulsory.

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