Parents are requesting waivers for the polio vaccine? SMH

I remember the polio epidemic from the early ’50s. I was just a little kid. Parents were keeping their kids away from crowds and public places. The thought of being in an iron lung was horrifying, not to mention paralysis. I saw an iron lung in a museum and it was scary.

One man I knew from college had a weakened forearm from polio.

Thank you, Dr. Salk. By the mid ‘50’s we were getting vaccinated and a few years later getting the vaccine on a sugar cube. I remember lining up at our local school to get the sugar cube.

I know we have discussed this and I am sure the thread was ultimately pulled, but i just dont understand why anyone would not want to be vaccinated against any disease!

I can’t imagine ever forgiving my parents if I contracted polio and they had neglected to have me vaccinated. I wonder if those who are so cavalier about foregoing vaccines for diseases they assume have been eradicated will now get vaccines for their kids?

Thinking about the large and isolationist Orthodox communities in that area...

Oh, that is not familiar to me. Unfortunately, polio doesn't recognize isolation boundaries. Have they never had vaccines, like in the 1950s when people were desperate to not get polio and were so relieved when the vaccine was released? So no grandparents were vaccinate back then or parents, etc? Anyone know?

Polio is active again in other places too, but especially in Orthodox Jewish communities in certain areas of New York.

Some of this is religious-based, but a lot is due to the nonsense 'believe nothing/trust nothing the government says' attitudes that took off during Covid. Childhood illnesses are rising everywhere in the US where parents refuse to get their children inoculated against measles, mumps, chickenpox -- and polio.

“Some of this is religious-based…”

Is it? From what I’m seeing, safe vaccinations against deadly diseases is not only allowed but encouraged by Jewish leaders.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8549591/

https://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/2870103/jewish/What-Does-Jewish-Law-Say-About-Vaccination.htm

Many of those parents who refuse vaccination for their own kids are alive because they were vaccinated as kids. It’s outrageous.

"“Some of this is religious-based…”

Is it? From what I’m seeing, safe vaccinations against deadly diseases is not only allowed but encouraged by Jewish leaders."

Yes, it is religious based, at least among some of the very "ultra-Orthodox" Haredi; they often feel a need to remove themselves from secular life and government as much as possible, and are much less likely to trust secular government. They also don't trust many "traditional" religious Jewish leaders, putting more faith in their own sect's leaders. Even in Israel, they worked to get the recommendations for vaccination from the specific religious leaders of those specific communities on board.

I guess you could say it's based on the religious group or sect, more than the overall umbrella of "Judaism".

It's defnitely not religion based, but then again, you know how anyone can find support in their beliefs by interpreting the bible differently. Foodonastump is right, but again, people can find support how and where they see it.

I would say that 99.9% do vaccinate, but they are very visible (the particular division in Brooklyn and Monsey).

There's the joke about a lone Jew on an island who builds 2 synagogues. One is for him, and the other is for the one he wouldn't go to if it was the only one on the island.

All humor aside, one other part is that in Judaism there is not a one voice spokesperson ( as in Pope).

In any case, it's troubling that this disease is making a resurgence. Interesting-- I understand the waste water but are there actually cases ?

sorry for my rant.

"I understand the waste water but are there actually cases ?"

So far, just one identified case of a young adult in Rockland county -- wastewater is their way of recognizing and monitoring the spread of the virus (which indicates the potential spread of the disease). Remember, flaccid paralysis is very rare with polio infections, so when you find a case of flaccid paralysis, there are probably more who have more minor, flu-like symptoms that have not been identified as polio.

thank you Toronto Vet.

I hear people mixing up "faith" with religion. As stated there are small sects that take a religion to places the Religion does not go. That's their faith not their religion. Oh and the Pope comment sooo far from FACT. The Pope has 2000 years of voices behind him that developed what is the Roman Catholic Church. The Pope does not, NEVER HAS made DECISIONS concerning things like vaccines. He only makes definitive statements on Faith and Morals--and count them there haven't been 20 in the 2000 years of church history!!

Ultra Orthodox communities in the Northeast US already had an outbreak of measles because they refused to vaccinate their kids...

https://www.timesofisrael.com/why-orthodox-communities-are-at-the-center-of-a-measles-outbreak/

Maybe we should say religious excuses rather than religious reasons.

"Maybe we should say religious excuses rather than religious reasons."

No, to them they are truly reasons, and what they believe in is truly a religion. It's a small and unique sect within the religion, but I think pretending that the Heredi, Ismali, or Quakers aren't religious or that they don't belong to a religion is wrong.. .

Interesting. My 13 month old aunt died of something that may have been polio back in the 1940's. There was never a definative answer. She got sick and her older siblings didn't catch it. She was in the hospital for a week or two and became paralyzied.

I guess I stand corrected re the Pope. My point was though that there is not a designated official statement issuer in Judaism.

Some American fundamentalist, far Right Evangelicals are also against getting vaccines. It is most disturbing to hear them rant about their distrust of science and the medical field.

"I guess I stand corrected re the Pope. My point was though that there is not a designated official statement issuer in Judaism."

There are in some denominations of Judaism.

“but I think pretending that the Heredi, Ismali, or Quakers aren't religious or that they don't belong to a religion is wrong.. .”

I’m not pretending they aren’t religions. But I will say that putting society at risk because of your minority interpretation of books that predated modern medicine and vaccines specifically by thousands of years, is wrong.

I "liked" foas's comment because I believe many* people don't honestly take religion seriously, but use religion as an excuse to opt their kids out of whatever program they don't care for -- vaccinations being one of them.

*not all, but many.

Yup - they sure did that here back in 1969/70, putting their kids in local Catholic schools to avoid the racial integration that was rather late in coming to FL. We knew plenty of kids who left public school to go to segregated parochial ones.

I too remember lining up for the first polio vaccines (and later the sugar cubes in the school cafeteria) in our small town. My Dad was the March of Dimes campaign chair and I was old enough to go with him to a few events that summer. The little sister of a good friend contracted polio and spent some time in an iron lung. She survived fine but wore leg braces for quite a while. She ended up as a state poster child when the campaign began. Her mother and my Dad were 2nd cousins iirc thru their mothers, so in those days, family truly meant a lot.

I also recall getting vaccinated for typhoid and tetanus and everything else that came along, No questions asked. Thank you, mom and dad.