‘Monkey, Rat and Pig DNA’: How Misinformation Is Driving the Measles Outbreak Among...

Peach’s handbook — with letters signed by rabbis and sections like “Halachic Points of Interest” — has become one of the main vehicles for misinformation among ultra-Orthodox groups, including Hasidim. Its message is being shared on hotlines and in group text messages.

“Vaccines contain monkey, rat and pig DNA as well as cow-serum blood, all of which are forbidden for consumption according to kosher dietary law,” Moishe Kahan, a contributing editor for Peach magazine, said in an email.

Vaccines are often grown in a broth of animal cells, but the final product is highly purified. Most prominent ultra-Orthodox rabbis agree that vaccines are kosher, and urge observant Jews to be immunized.

Still, from enclaves in suburban Rockland County to the bustling streets of Brooklyn’s Borough Park neighborhood, fliers tell the Hasidim to be skeptical of immunizations. On a recent Sunday evening, a four-hour conference call promoted to ultra-Orthodox families — with call-in numbers for a variety of countries — offered advice from speakers who were presented as experts in vaccine science.