Why Some Orthodox Jewish Women Won’t Get Vaccinated

Unsubstantiated rumors about the coronavirus vaccine and fertility have dissuaded some young women in New York’s Orthodox Jewish communities from getting the vaccine.

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 don’t 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 one-year stay at a seminary in Jerusalem because it required a vaccination.