“If a rabbi did say ‘you have to vaccinate,’ we wouldn't”: Unveiling the secular logics of religious exemption and opposition to vaccination

Kasstan, Ben

doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2021.114052

Cited by 41 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 54 publications

(44 reference statements)

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“…For example, ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel and several other countries including Belgium, the US, and Canada have experienced outbreaks of mumps and measles because they have not vaccinated their children [9,24,34,35]. Moreover, ultra-Orthodox Jews in London, New York and Jerusalem have experienced disproportionately higher rates of coronavirus [14,20,33,40,41].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In a community where having large families is prized, concerns about fertility are quite salient. Moreover, initially there was widespread antivaccination messaging among ultra-Orthodox Jews [2,20]. However, their limited access to reliable information about new scientific developments from television, the Internet and mainstream media limited the ability to counter these messages [31].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The occurrence of COVID-19 clusters among ultra-Orthodox Jews in New York and various religious groups in Korea and Germany seems to hint at this relationship. Over the last decade, many studies have found that religion is an important determining element in people's choices about becoming vaccinated (e.g., [20,25,26]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Is stronger religious faith associated with a greater willingness to take the COVID-19 vaccine? Evidence from Israel and Japan

et al. 2021

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Achieving high vaccination rates is important for overcoming an epidemic. This study investigates the association between religious faith and intentions to become vaccinated against COVID-19 in Israel and Japan. Most of Israel's population is monotheistic, whereas most Japanese are unaffiliated with any religion. Therefore, our findings might be applicable to various countries that differ in their religions and levels of religiosity. We conducted almost identical large-scale surveys four times in Israel and five times in Japan from March to June 2020 to obtain panel data. We found that intentions of getting vaccinated depend on people's level of religiosity in a non-linear way. Those who have strong religious beliefs are less likely to become vaccinated than those who say they are less religious. Two other factors that play a role in this relationship are religious denomination in Israel and identifying with a religion in Japan.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Is stronger religious faith associated with a greater willingness to take the COVID-19 vaccine? Evidence from Israel and Japan

et al. 2021

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“…This integration of biomedicine and religion is especially apparent for reproductive technologies, which shape how religious Jews actualize and interpret the commandment to "be fruitful and multiply" (Ivry 2010;Kahn 2006;Kasstan 2019;Taragin-Zeller 2021). But ideas of protection are not always projected in line with religious or medical opinion (Kasstan 2021a). Rather, notions of protection run headlong into truth-claims regarding the transparency and trust of state institutions.…”

Section: Protecting the "Jewish State"mentioning

confidence: 99%

Viral Entanglements: Bodies, Belonging and Truth‐claims in Health Borderlands

Kasstan

2022

Med Anthropol Q

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This paper contributes to anthropological debates surrounding borderlands and biosecurity by tracing the multiple pursuits of protection that emerge between the state and minorities during infectious disease outbreaks. Drawing on an ethnographic study into child health in Jerusalem following epidemics of measles and COVID-19, the paper demonstrates how responses to public health interventions are less about 'compliance' or 'indiscipline' than a competing pursuit of immunity to preserve religiously Orthodox lifeworlds. The voices of religiously Orthodox Jews are situated alongside printed broadsides (pashkevilim) that circulated anonymous truth-claims in Jerusalem neighborhoods, which cast state intervention against historical narratives of deception and ethical failures. Borderland tensions, like a virus, mutate and influence responses to authority and biosecurity, and reconfigure vernacular entanglements of religion, state, and health. The paper encourages anthropologists and public health specialists to consider non-vaccination beyond a COVID-19 silo, and as part of situated relations between the state and minority populations.

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“…However, social scientific perspectives offer a deeper and more actionable insight: vaccine engagements are products of social contexts and circumstances that shape encounters with health care and even conceptions of health. 21 , 22 , 23 Institutional and interpersonal racism, for instance, creates structural barriers in access to COVID-19 vaccines that require ambition, reflection, and dialogue on the part of policy makers and health systems to address. 24 When the critique inherent to much social scientific research and analysis is discounted, policy makers can find themselves asking the wrong questions or misinterpreting the answers.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%