Friendly Fire

Many parents are apprehensive of the measles vaccine, and justifiably so. The risk of seizures
from MMR vaccines are one in 640 children vaccinated with MMR 1, about 5 times more likely than
from the actual measles infection 2. In the year of 2017, there were 3,619 adverse events to the
measles vaccine reported to the VAERS database 3, and according to a review from Harvard funded by
the HHS, this accounts to fewer than 1% of all reported adverse events 4. This would mean that there
were approximately 362,000 adverse events related to the receipt of the measles vaccine just last
year. These numbers are far higher than actual measles complications during the height of measles
epidemics in the pre-vaccine era, where there
were 3-4 million exposures a year. There are
already reports of children severely damaged on
life support or with seizure disorders related to the
current MMR vaccine drive.

However, opportunists used the measles

outbreak in Lakewood as an opportunity to wage a
negative public relations war and wedge a terrific
divide against those who don’t vaccinate. Just as
in the case of chickenpox in 2016 (see chapter 1),
the measles outbreak which began at the end of
October in Lakewood has been milked for all that
it’s worth.

Immediately with the introduction of case

zero (the first case) a letter was sent out from
Pediatric Affiliates stating that by decree of the Health Department any unimmunized child that
receives a vaccine will still have to wait 21 days from the date of vaccination if a measles case presents
itself in that particular school. All public health guides actually state to the contrary, that pupils may
be readmitted immediately
after receipt of the MMR.
However, this was intended
to create a frenzy and
succeeded in doing so.
Throngs of people scurried to
get their vaccines not to be
excluded from schools. Long
lines formed outside doctors’

1
Vestergaard M, Hviid A, Madsen KM, Wohlfahrt J, Thorsen P, Schendel D, Melbye M, Olsen J. MMR vaccination
and febrile seizures: evaluation of susceptible subgroups and long-term prognosis. JAMA. 2004 Jul 21;292(3):356.

2
https://physiciansforinformedconsent.org/education-measles-old/dis/
3
https://www.medalerts.org/
4
https://healthit.ahrq.gov/sites/default/files/docs/publication/r18hs017045-lazarus-final-report-2011.pdf
offices in this hysterical tumult (see pictures). Not lost in the commotion was the bold words on
bottom of the letter that non-compliance will result in the school being shut down. All this was despite
the fact that there had never been such an issue from the Department of Health. But the drama was
just beginning.

According to the CDC, 3 cases of measles linked in time and place are deemed an outbreak.
Just hours after the 3rd case of measles was confirmed; a letter was issued from Pediatric Affiliates
issuing measles guidelines.

By way of introduction, it must be understood that disease control is always conducted by

Public Health professionals. Included in the science of Public health is the control of outbreaks and
surveillance. Public health professionals go for special schooling to that end. Public Health decisions
are never decided by a doctor gone rogue in private practice, rather it is according to exacting
guidelines and is always in tandem with local and state health departments.

However, the following notice

appeared with the Pediatric Affiliates
letterhead:

“As per the requirement of the NJ

Department of Health, all children
attending licensed Day Care Centers and
Schools must be up to date with all
immunizations, unless they have a valid
medical exemption. That does NOT
include a religious exemption.”

This was an obvious farce, as the measles virus does not show philosophical preference of
infecting those who carry religious exemption over those who present a medical exemption.
According to Public Health guidelines, during an outbreak any and all susceptible individuals must be
excluded. Those that have medical
and religious exemptions included.
Additionally, this announcement was
found nowhere on the State
Departments website nor was there
any similar letter carried by the local
OCHD.

That evening a new edict was

doled out by pediatric Affiliates. This
decree stated in the name of the NJ
State Department of Health that an
outbreak had been declared in Ocean
County. This letter took the liberty to
ban all unvaccinated children from all schools. Still lacking, however, was any formal statement from
the NJ Department of Health.

The letter went on to say that it is following the Red Book Guidelines for outbreak control.
Interestingly, the Red book does say that all unvaccinated children must be excluded from school,
however it does make the caveat that the outbreak must be in the facility for this rule to be effective.
Hardly the case here. As a matter of fact, every single public health manual cites that exclusions are
only to take place in “affected institutions”. 5 To date, not a single pupil in any school has been
infected. Additionally, we must note that the Red Book is an internal policy book for the AAP, not a
legally binding law book, and is never quoted as a source for policy.

Interviews with agents uncovered that Dr. Shanik was not acting alone. His co-conspirator was
a Dr. Meg Fisher, pediatric infectious disease consultant working at Monmouth Hospital. This explains
why the Red Book was quoted. Dr. Fisher is actually a co-author of the Red Book 6! Quite ironic that
she couldn’t even quote accurately from her own book!

The fact that people refuse to vaccinate remains their own autonomous decision, however
the decision to prosecute them from doing so is troubling at the least.

In the pre-vaccine era (before 1963), measles was a

disease which affected 3-4 million people annually 7. However,
even before the vaccine became licensed, this rate dropped
dramatically (see chart on left) 8. Using 1955 as a sample year,
there was 0.2 cases of measles deaths per 100,000 of the
population 9. Being that that the census shows that there was
150,000,000 hence there were 320 deaths of measles that year
or one out of 12,500 10. However, coupled with the 97% efficacy
rate of the measles vaccine, according to the laws of
probability, the rate of a vaccinated person dying from the
measles drops to one in 412,500 11. Furthermore, currently
there have been 14 cases in Lakewood in the past month. The
period of maximum communicability of measles averages about 7 days 12, meaning that there is only
an average of about 3.5 cases that are contagious at any given time. With a population in Lakewood
standing at about 100,000 13 this risk is mitigated to infinitesimally small numbers.

5
i.e. VPD Surveillance Manual Measles: Chapter 7.15
6
https://www.rwjbh.org/doctors/margaret-c-fisher-md/
7
Pink Book page 214, CDC
8
Vital Statistics Rates in the United States, 1940-1960
9
https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/vsus/vsrates1940_60.pdf
10 0.2 𝑥𝑥
= 𝒳𝒳=320
100,000 160,000,000
11 1
𝑥𝑥 3%
12,500
12
Pink Book Page 214, CDC
13
https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/lakewoodtownshipoceancountynewjersey
 What results is that the death rate of
one in a thousand reported today is highly
inflated. Although the vital statistics from 1955
Excerpt from Rabbi Morgenstern’s letter to Rabbi Shlomo Chaim
Kanarek, as to why schools can exclude non-vaccinated children.
do not record what complications resulted
from the measles, but similar suspicion must
be supposed regarding other alleged statistics, such as a 25% hospitalization rate. With all the cases
in measles in the US, we have not seen anywhere near a 25% rate of hospitalization. The persecution
by those who vaccinate and are thereby protected from the disease against those who do not
vaccinate is entirely unjustified.

All this drama led those that were unjustly excluded from schools to retain lawyers to help
clarify the law regarding schools. According to a memo released from the department of health in
May of 2017 14, “Religious affiliated schools or child care centers shall have the authority to withhold or
grant a religious exemption from the required immunization for pupils entering or attending their
institutions without challenge by any secular health authority.”

The memo continues that:

“In accordance with N.J.A.C. 8:57-4.3 (d) and 4.4 (d) a school, preschool, or child care center may
exclude children with religious or medical exemptions during a vaccine-preventable disease outbreak or
threatened outbreak as determined by the Commissioner, Department of Health, or his or her designee.”

This led the lawyers to conclude that the reason for exclusion was secular in nature (based on a
health risk) and was not determined by the Commissioner or his office, hence any exclusion was against
the law.

Many parents contacted the health department directly to question them about the legality of
Dr. Shanik’s egregious letter. They sent back that only schools with cases of measles should be dismissing
children and said that they would put out a letter clarifying the issue.

One member of the health committee addressed the issue from another angle. He stressed that
keeping hundreds of children out of school is an immense educational crisis and involves truancies on an
epic scale. It should be sobering that this should be coming from someone who has no chiyuv Talmud
Torah, and is only lamenting the fact that children are missing out from social conditioning (for the most
part) while we know that ‫אין העולם מתקיים אלא בהבל פיהם של תינוקות של בית רבן‬, and nonetheless we have
banished hundreds of children from their eternal source without a second thought.

14
https://nj.gov/health/cd/documents/imm_requirements/religious_exemption.pdf
 About one day after Dr. Shanik released
his letter he was swiftly chastised from the
Health Department 15 . A new letter was released
from the OCHD that stated in no uncertain terms
that school exclusion was not to be decided by
private actors. However, not to be bested, Dr.
Shanik et al. gathered 31 local doctors to garner
support for his unsupported notion that
unvaccinated children should be kept out of
school against the directive of the Health
Department. According to the recommendation

stated in the letter, a child that is 11 months

old will receive 3 MMR vaccines within 2
months, an incredible schedule that has
never been even remotely tested. At least
one doctor signed the letter on the condition
that it suggested titers to be taken after 1
dose of MMR (Holly’s Law 16) and not to
vaccinate with a second dose unless lack of
immunity is verified, however this
dispensation was removed after his
signature was affixed. Talk about
truthfulness. (Also notice the bottom two
signatures on the right- do they look right to
you?)

In the succinct words of Dr. Neil

Gittelman, “It’s not about measles, just now
is the time to do it” (to finally crush the anti-
vaccine movement).

Just as when it looked like the

conspiracy was at its height, a new player
entered the fray. Dr. Richard Roberts. Dr.
Roberts claimed to have been approached by
pediatricians to further this agenda and he
pledged monetary and legal help to any
yeshiva that will potentially face a lawsuit.
Furthermore, and much more insidiously, he

15
https://www.ochd.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/Measles-Update-110718-pdf-00000002-1.pdf
16
https://nj.gov/health/cd/documents/antibody_titer_law.pdf
said that the only way to stop the “anti-vaxxers” from spreading their message will be thru criminal
prosecution of unrelated activities and hired a top law firm to that end 17. The expression “you can
indict a ham-sandwich” explains what he was trying to do. A few days later he put out another video 18
in which he clarified his threats. In the video release, Dr. Roberts threatened that he is sitting on top
of recordings as well as other information that the
feds can “somehow” get a hold of. Although, as
clarified through his attorney, there was no
definite wrongdoing, however the lawyer stated:

“You will often hear commercials on the

radio for products that sound wonderful, but they
carry a disclaimer that 'this product is not intended
to diagnose, treat, prevent or cure any condition."
Such a statement is carefully designed to try to
avoid liability for this crime. Among the anti-vaxxers, however, this kind of disclaimer is frequently
missing, which helps provide proof of the unlawful scheme.”

In other words, Dr. Roberts was fishing for a way to blackmail those who don’t vaccinate to
lay off. This further becomes clear when in the second video he notes that the lawsuits have been
dropped because of the threats. Blackmail is a Federal offence, and it’s remarkable that Dr. Roberts
in his zealousness to uphold governmental law resorts to illegal blackmail.

Worse than blackmail is the very real mesirah which took place. Nonetheless, this was literally
lauded in every single Jewish news media outlet, including the Yated and Yeshiva World News.

In a third release from Dr. Roberts 19, he quotes extensively about halacha and pesak why
religious exemptions should not be recognized. It’s important to note that the lawyer writing this,
albeit Jewish, is a Director of JSPAN (Jewish Social Policy Action Network). Among the ideas supported
by this organization is strong support of marriage equality (LGBTQ rights) 20 and the right for Women’s
choice (of even late term abortion) 21. And this is the lawyer that will uphold the “religious rights” of
our Yeshivas…

17
http://www.thelakewoodscoop.com/news/2018/11/exclusive-video-dr-rich-roberts-takes-on-the-anti-vaxxers-
as-measles-cases-rise-in-lakewood-engages-top-law-firm.html
18
http://www.thelakewoodscoop.com/news/2018/11/exclusive-video-dr-roberts-releases-attorneys-letter-
regarding-school-exclusions-in-new-jersey-for-the-unimmunized.html
19
http://www.thelakewoodscoop.com/news/2018/11/dr-rich-roberts-releases-attorney-letter-regarding-
immunization-exemptions-for-private-schools-in-new-york.html
20
https://jspan.org/policy-center/lgbtq-rights-policy-center
21
https://jspan.org/p/50
 After what was some obvious hand twisting of the local department of health 22, a new letter
was issued 23. In this letter the health department cites

“While the November 7, 2018 guidance is factual and accurate, there are other guidance
documents and components of N.J.A.C. 8:57 that provide decision making autonomy to schools,
preschools and childcare facilities.”

The document goes on:

“the Ocean County Health Department "HIGHLY ENCOURAGES" and "SUPPORTS" the
exclusion of non-vaccinated children from schools, preschools and daycares during the time of the
current New Jersey Department of Health declared outbreak of measles in our community.”

The legality of this new document is flawed as cited above. The autonomy given to schools is
only if it is religious in nature, but this was being dictated by 31 doctors. The memo itself indicates
that there was a great measure of pressure as it states in the introduction that the first letter was
indeed factual. Still this letter does not require the schools to exclude children, rather it merely
encourages it.

This memo also seems contradicted by the health commissioner himself in a video where he
cited that although the Lakewood community has a large orthodox population, Elnahal (the
Commissioner) says he does not believe that religious exemptions from vaccines are playing a role in
this outbreak.

“That connection is often made, but it should be known that there are people from every
community that choose not to get vaccines.” 24

The entire campaign to malign the unvaccinated was ultimately to present the unvaccinated
as lepers and reservoirs of disease. This bait was largely picked up, and even tenants were evicted
from their apartments. This insanity spread to Cleveland, Detroit, Atlanta, South Bend, Miami,
Rochester, Chicago and many Jewish towns across the US. Even though these towns had no incidence
of measles, however the impression was made that the germed and tainted unvaccinated will
decimate their communities in due time. Such assertions obviously have no scientific basis.

The true shocker, however, occurred on Nov 20 when R’ Shmuel Kaminetzky was accosted by
four Lakewood doctors, including Drs. Shanik and Ogun. The doctors, brandishing a document
confronted the 95-year-old veteran sage and demanded that he sign a letter to exclude children from
school pending the receipt of a MMR vaccine. The timing of the doctor’s visit, during his
granddaughter’s wedding, was hardly some arbitrary rendezvous, rather a serious premeditated
conspiracy. R’ Shmuel took them to a side room and with another young man in attendance the

22
In a phone conversation with the OCHD, a questioner asked about the apparent contradictory letters. The
associate from the Department responded, “How would you react if the Mayor of your town comes in, demanding
that a document be signed?”.
23
https://www.ochd.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/11.9.18-School-Exclusion.pdf
24
https://www.njtvonline.org/news/video/health-officials-expect-lakewood-measles-outbreak-to-spread/
doctors proceeded to explain to him the danger of measles and why unvaccinated children have to
be excluded. However, the facts presented did not match the CDC stats by a long shot. (see some of
the statistics presented above). When the doctors where asked how their statistics were so far
removed from that of the CDC, no answer was forthcoming. Instead, they were told that they would
receive a return call the next day.

True to his word, Dr. Ogun returned a call to the young man in attendance and told him in a
recorded phone call that he is very apologetic, but the study that their statistics were based on was
a flawed study. The study was based in Africa with malnourished HIV positive subjects and does not
really reflect the reality in the United States. However, Dr. Ogun Stated that they believe in Universal
Vaccination and for that reason they were quoting this study… to up the vaccination rates.

In simple English, the Doctor stated that they lied about the statistics in order to push their
agenda. The Doctor then advised the young man to speak to Rabbi Akiva Tatz as he is both a Rabbinical
authority as well as a medical doctor. In a
forty-minute recorded phone conversation
with Rabbi Tatz, he said that if these
statistics are what the doctors are using to
justify keeping unvaccinated children
excluded from school, then the doctors, all
31 of them, must retract.

As of this writing, this has yet to

happen, but based upon the data presented
by Lakewood doctors 25 Rabbi Fuerst took
the unprecedented step to write “We have
been informed by medical experts in the
community… during a time of a Measles
outbreak, exposing others to an
unvaccinated Individual is equivalent to an
act of ‫רודף‬. This is a highly inflammatory

Halachic adjective to use especially if it is based on

flawed statistics. Similarly, an equally disturbing

25
In a phone conversation, Rabbi Fuerst differed to the Lakewood doctors.
letter emanated from the hallowed study hall of Yeshivas Chaim Berlin. In this letter there is likewise
an admission that the information was provided by doctors. Based on that, all unvaccinated were
banned from being in the Yeshiva Community. There are apparently no illegitimate means that the
Doctors use to reach their end.

In Baltimore, where the end result was already accomplished five years ago, i.e. unvaccinated
children excluded from schools, the local Vaad Rabbonim took the next logical step. To ban
unvaccinated from Shuls, playgrounds, shopping centers, concerts and all other public places 26. This
is actually the end goal in other communities as well. Strangely, letters in Baltimore, Elizabeth, and
Rochester have all emerged with almost the exact same wording.

To reiterate the words of Dr. Gittelman… “it’s not about measles, just now is the time to do it”.

Ignored are the hundreds of ‫ תינוקות של בית רבן‬who were summarily expelled from yeshivos
with no arrangements made to guarantee their chinuch.

Ignored are the hundreds of abused children who crying because they are made to feel like
they did something wrong when in fact their parents have made the decision that these children
cannot tolerate vaccines.

Ignored are the dozens of cases of serious shalom bayis issues where one spouse has seen
vaccine damage in some of their children, whilst the other spouse cannot bear to see the children
home, day after day.

Ignored are the cries from Jewish mothers who each have a horror story to relate as to why
they cannot vaccinate their children, yet they are being denied basic human rights that even children
who act most inappropriately are not treated that way.

Ignored are the feuds when relatives disinvite friends and family to simchos because they are
“untouchables”.

Ignored are kimpatorins who have many children home because they were hounded from
school and no siblings can offer to watch these “contaminated” children. Ignored are parents who
have left their jobs because they must now stay home to babysit their children.

Ignored is all civility.

Ignored is basic mentchlechkait.

All because “We believe in universal vaccination” 27.

Ignored.

26
https://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/general/1628509/vaad-harabbonim-rabbinical-council-of-baltimore-
join-growing-list-of-rabbonim-urging-vaccination.html
27
Quote from Dr. Ogun. See above.
 It’s not cliché to be banned from schools and it’s not in vogue to be ostracized from the
community. Parents are not being moser nefesh because it’s somehow considered “cool”. Nearly
every single parent of a non-vaccinated child will tell you their personal bad experience with vaccines.
They will rattle off data like seasoned statisticians. Not only are they ignored, rather this dubious
campaign has been unleashed to hurt them in the very worst way.

Lest you are still unconvinced that an agenda is at play, already now The Special Children’s
Center (which is legally a public school and is hence required by law to accept religious exemption)
has told parents that failure to receive the flu vaccine will result in expulsion until April 1, 2019. The
many parents that need the services in The Center will attest to the fact that the injury in their child
was caused by vaccines 28. The fact that they are being hounded into taking the flu vaccine is nothing
less than a religious jihad.

If there is any takeaway- it’s that many Doctors have been untruthful and are not to be trusted at
the very minimum regarding vaccines. The truth is viewed as a nuisance when it comes in the way
of their agenda. Parents should have full autonomous choices regarding their children’s health
without feeling coerced to make medical decisions against their better judgment. Finally, schools
should enact rules based on solid data, not based on a private actor’s personal vendetta

28
See Ami Living May 14, 2014 page 14 where Dr. Shanik states “Although no vaccine is risk free, many of the
troubling reactions reported… occurred in an individual with certain ‘inherent’ triggers that the vaccine happened
to set off”