Year: 2019

Yonasan Rosenblum AGAINST Coercing the HPV Vaccine

Excerpt from Mishpacha Magazine:

LAST WEEK I FAITHFULLY WENT FOR MY ANNUAL FLU SHOT, and I have 20 grandchildren who have all completed their vaccine schedules, so I trust that I will not be accused of being an “anti-vaxxer.” But I find the bills currently on the legislative docket in New York mandating vaccinations against HPV concerning, and I believe that mainstream proponents of vaccinations should find them concerning as well.

I’m convinced that not a single Orthodox parent would willingly consent to the vaccination against HPV for their child. The bills have nothing to do with issue of vaccines against contagious childhood diseases. HPV is neither airborne nor contagious through casual contact.

Most important, there is no upside. There are far cheaper, less invasive, and safer ways to prevent cervical cancer than vaccination. The first is following a chaste and monogamous Torah life. That alone dramatically reduces the chances of being infected with any strains of HPV.

The second is going for regular exams and undergoing the appropriate screening tests. Cervical cancer does not develop quickly, and such a regime would identify pre-cancerous conditions and facilitate their treatment. In the developed world, where such exams are the norm, rates of cervical cancer are far lower than in the undeveloped world. Even proponents of the protective effect of the HPV vaccine admit that it should not be relied upon to the exclusion of the physician’s exams described above.

There is even preliminary evidence that HPV vaccines may lead to increased cervical cancer — at least in the developed world. Population cohorts with high rates of HPV vaccination when the vaccine first came on the market in 2006 show higher, not lower, rates of cervical cancer. That could be for one of two reasons or some combination thereof. The first is that those who have been vaccinated may feel that they are protected, and therefore forgo regularly scheduled physician’s exams. The second is that the vaccine may have an amplifying effect on those who have already been infected with one or more of the strains of HPV in the vaccine.

Ultimately, not all vaccines are equal. Most vaccines have been developed to combat highly contagious diseases that can be fatal and have few treatment options. Gardasil, however, targets a disease that is not highly contagious and its results are not backed by long-term data. Most importantly for our community, even mainstream defenders of vaccination cannot defend it as remotely necessary for the average Torah-observant patient.

See the rest here.

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Owning Currency Is Proof of SERVING Our Fellow Man

Morality of Free Markets

By 

December 11, 2019

 

Dr. Richard Ebeling, professor of economics at The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina, and my longtime friend and colleague, has written an important article, “Business Ethics and Morality of the Marketplace,” appearing in the American Institute for Economic Research. Its importance and timeliness is enhanced by so many of America’s youth, led by academic hacks, having fallen prey to the siren song of socialism.

In a key section of his article, Ebeling lays out what he calls the ethical principles of free markets. He says: “The hallmark of a truly free market is that all associations and relationships are based on voluntary agreement and mutual consent. Another way of saying this is that in the free market society, people are morally and legally viewed as sovereign individuals possessing rights to their life, liberty, and honestly acquired property, who may not be coerced into any transaction that they do not consider being to their personal betterment and advantage.”

Ebeling says that the rules of a free market are simple and easy to understand: “You don’t kill, you don’t steal, and you don’t cheat through fraud or misrepresentation. You can only improve your own position by improving the circumstances of others. Your talents, abilities, and efforts must all be focused on one thing: what will others take in trade from you for the revenues you want to earn as the source of your own income and profits?”

For many people, profit has become a dirty word and as such has generated slogans such as “people before profits.” Many believe the pursuit of profits is the source of mankind’s troubles. However, it’s often the absence of profit motivation that’s the true villain. For example, contrast the number of complaints heard about profit-oriented establishments such as computer stores, supermarkets and clothing stores to the complaints that one hears about nonprofit establishments such as the U.S. Post Office, the public education system and departments of motor vehicles. Computer stores, supermarkets and clothing stores face competition and must satisfy customers to earn profits and stay in business. Postal workers, public teachers and department of motor vehicles employees depend on politicians and coercion to get their pay. They stay in business whether customers are satisfied with their services or not.

In a free market society, income is neither taken nor distributed. Income is earned by serving one’s fellow man. Say I mow your lawn. When I’m finished, you pay me $50. Then, I go to my grocer and demand, “Give me two pounds of sirloin and a six-pack of beer that my fellow man produced.” In effect, the grocer asks: “Williams, what did you do to deserve a claim on what your fellow man produced?” I say, “I served him.” The grocer says, “Prove it.” That’s when I pull out the $50. We might think of dollars as “certificates of performance,” proof of serving our fellow man.

Free markets are morally superior to other economic systems. To have a claim on what my fellow man produces, I’m forced to serve him. Contrast that requirement to government handouts, where a politician says to me: “You don’t have to get out in that hot sun to mow your fellow man’s lawn. Vote for me and I’ll take what your fellow man produces and give it to you.”

Ebeling says that those deserving condemnation are those who use government coercion to gain at the expense of others. There are thousands of such examples: government subsidies at taxpayers’ expense, paying farmers not to grow crops or guaranteeing them a minimum price paid for through tax dollars and higher prices for consumers, regulations that limit entry into various professions and occupations, regulations that limit consumer choice, and corporate handouts and bailouts.

In a word or so, our protest should not be against capitalism. People should protest crony capitalism, where people use the political arena to buy government favors. If millennials and others want to wage war against government favors and crony capitalism, I’m with them 100%. But I’m all too afraid that anti-capitalists just want their share of the government loot.

From LRC, here.