Some Orthodox Jewish women decline vaccine

Rabbis recorded warning of having adverse side effects

NEW YORK » In April, rumors began swirling in various New York City neighborhoods with large Orthodox Jewish communities about how the coronavirus vaccine could pose a serious threat to women’s fertility.

On WhatsApp groups, recordings of rabbis warning against what they said were the vaccine’s adverse effects proliferated quickly among the growing networks for the mothers of teenage girls who do not want their daughters vaccinated.

Miriam Tewel, an 18-year-old from the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, said the rumors influenced her decision not to go to Israel for a oneyear stay at a seminary in Jerusalem because it required a vaccination.

“Anything that could compromise my future as a mother is not worth the risk,” said Tewel, 18, who is the youngest of 11 children.

Many of Tewel’s friends are consulting about the decision with their rabbis, who have a large say in what happens in the community and have been making recommendations on a case-by-case basis. But Tewel has already made up her mind.

There is no evidence that any vaccines, including coronavirus vaccines, cause fertility problems, and people do not need to avoid becoming pregnant after receiving a coronavirus vaccine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Many prominent mainstream Orthodox leaders in the New York region and in Israel, where the virus has all but disappeared, have advised their communities to get the coronavirus vaccine.

But in ultra-Orthodox circles in New York, where women marry at a younger age and birthrates dwarf those of the general population, the spread of unsubstantiated rumors about the coronavirus vaccine’s potential adverse effects on fertility and pregnancy have been particularly effective in dissuading young women from getting the vaccine, interviews with health officials and community members show. These neighborhoods have some of the lowest vaccination rates in New York City.

Misinformation campaigns in these communities during the pandemic led to a resistance to restrictions and guidelines that at times caused a surge of virus cases.

A concern for officials

Lis that a resistance to the vaccine in Orthodox neighborhoods could play a part in endangering the city’s long-term prospects for a health and economic recovery. While vaccine hesitancy has been seen in many Latino and Black neighborhoods in the city, the resistance in ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods may be more difficult to combat because of the insular nature of the community, according to community activists and health department officials.

“Fears about the vaccine and fertility have caught on in the Orthodox community like wildfire,” said Dr. Bat-Sheva Lerner Maslow, a reproductive endocrinologist and founding board member of Jewish Orthodox Women’s Medical Association, or JOWMA, a grassroots group that has taken the lead on combating misinformation about the coronavirus vaccine circulating in Orthodox circles.

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