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New Kids’ Book Enrages ‘Anti-Vaxxers’

From the JTA:

Like any self-respecting author, Ann D. Koffsky checks her Amazon rankings on a regular basis. “A little bit ridiculously,” she acknowledged. Yet when she noticed the rating for her most recent book had dropped to one-star overnight, it wasn’t so funny — especially once she started reading the user reviews.

“This book is filled with lies,” claimed one.

“Very upsetting,” said another.

“Utter propaganda …” began the next.

Soon the “review war,” as Koffsky called it, spilled over onto her personal Facebook page.

“I think my favorite comment was the one questioning my mental state,” said Koffsky, who has written more than 30 books for children.

Yes, the target of all this rage is a children’s picture book, Koffsky’s latest, published just in time for Hanukkah.

“Judah Maccabee Goes to the Doctor: A Story for Hanukkah” is about a young boy named Judah who — spoiler alert! — goes to the doctor. With cheerful illustrations by Talitha Shipman, Koffsky’s story follows Judah as he learns to channel the bravery of his Maccabee namesake and get a scary booster shot, thus protecting his little sister, Hannah, who is too young to be vaccinated.

“Halachically, a person is obligated to follow the doctor’s opinion, especially in matters pertaining to vaccines and other forms of medicine which prevent illnesses and death,” wrote Rabbi Sholom Shuchat, a deciser for Chabad-Lubavitch rabbis worldwide, adding that in the Torah, “when someone does an action which can cause death, or even refuses to do an action which can prevent death, he is compared to a murderer.”

Click here to continue reading at the JTA.

Author, Ann D. Koffsky

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31 Comments

  • RCL

    i bought the book in order to review it as a verified purchaser and have already given it an outstanding review

  • Stand your ground!

    I would buy this for my grandchildren, if for nothing else to show these wackos that such a campaign of hatred will only backfire on them. If they put the same effort into thinking about the welfare of children who can’t be immunized as they do about promoting anti-vaccines, we’d all be better off.

    And just one other thing… I agree that vaccines cause problems – IF children are given the MMR vaccine as a triple. I insisted my kids got separate shots.

    Ms. Koffsky, these anti-vaxxers are irrelevant. Much Hatzlacha in everything you do.

  • YUP

    Here we go again, and again. Boring to see everyone’s opinion. I’m waiting for open debate with facts that we don’t get to see. Like Paul Thorson, the crook that proved there is no connection to Autism, Dr. William Thompson, a research scientist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) who claimed the CDC covered up a vaccine-autism connection in relation to the MMR vaccine but CDC director Thomas Frieden blocked the request to have Thompson testify, stating it “would not substantially promote the objectives of CDC…

    • Milhouse

      You have it exactly backwards. The link between MMR and autism was deliberately made up by Andrew Wakefield yimach shmo, a former doctor who lost his license because of this fraud. His sole purpose in inventing this fairy tale was so he could make a good living testifying whenever parents would sue the vaccine manufacturers. For this purpose he cynically frightened millions of parents, and because of him measles are back. Every child who gets measles is his fault, and he should burn for it.

  • Not So Simple

    The vaccine issue is not so simple. Vaccines come with risks. Some children have died from the vaccines. Parents should be able to choose for their own children, and yet the system has made our schools and summer camps into institutions that force vaccines on our children.

    • Milhouse

      It is very very simple. Yes, vaccines come with risks; there is no such thing in this world as absolute safety. Everything we do comes with risks, and so does everything we don’t do.

      Looking both ways before crossing the street is risky because just while you’re looking right a mugger may come up from your left and catch you unawares; but not looking is much more risky.

      Having a fire alarm in your home is risky because it might fall on your head, but not having it is much riskier.

      If you take your baby to the doctor for a checkup you risk a car accident on the way, but if you don’t go you risk not finding out about serious problems with your child.

      For every single vaccine in the standard childhood regimen, the risk to an ordinary, otherwise healthy child, of not having it is thousands of times the risk of having it.

  • Let's all buy the book

    Mrs. Koffsky is a wonderful author and haters should not be permitted to ruin her reputation and spoil her parnassa simply because they don’t share her views on healthcare. Let’s all buy the book and write good reviews. Here is the link:

    https://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=judah+maccabee+goes+to+the+doctor&tag=googhydr-20&index=aps&hvadid=232546204720&hvpos=1t1&hvnetw=g&hvrand=5499826762947917867&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=e&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9004349&hvtargid=kwd-382617926590&ref=pd_sl_402mb0eyqq_e

  • An Innocent Victim of the anti-vaxxers

    I’m afraid that the anti-vaxxers are NOT irrelevant because although I am responsible about keeping current with immunizations, I still contracted Whooping Cough which is making a comeback thanks to the “anti-vaxxers!”

    Two years later, I am still suffering ill effects…

    • Not So Fast

      You say you got the vaccine and still got the whooping cough. Rather than blame others who didn’t get the vaccine, why not blame those who lied to you, put toxins into your body and told you that the shot was effective? Obviously it wasn’t.

    • Milhouse

      “Not so fast” and “lol” are either idiots or deliberate liars. Everyone knows that no vaccine is 100% effective, and no doctor pretends they are.

      CDC’s current estimate is that in the first year after getting vaccinated with Tdap, it protects about 7 out of 10 people who receive it. There is a decrease in effectiveness in each following year. About 3 or 4 out of 10 people are fully protected 4 years after getting Tdap.

    • Pertussis

      Would it interest you to know vaccinated children shed and transmit the bacteria for a while after being vaccinated and that is a known mechanism for transmission? And for a longer period than those naturally infected? So statistically you contracted the disease from a vaccinated individual. You can blame all you want but facts are facts.

  • if becomes a different rant when...

    Gd forbid a child you know changes overnight bc of a vaccine. The mind opens when the hand of personal experience is there to assist. We should never know of any more such cases. There sure are plenty on record though but it’s a blind spot until the eyes open.

    This is not a simple matter.
    It is a discussion for the objective minded people who have done the thorough research (not the opposite).

    • Milhouse

      There are NO cases on record. It’s 100% made up. Sure there are risks, but the kind of changes you’re referring to are not among them. Specifically, NO CHILD HAS EVER BECOME AUTISTIC BECAUSE OF AN INJECTION. Anyone who claims it has happened, even once in the entire history of the world, is lying to you. That is simply not how autism happens.

  • It's a fair argument both ways

    Saying that “someone who doesn’t give their children vaccines is a murderer” is absurd……. You must admit that it’s a medical argument and both sides have validation….. Calling your opponent a Murderer is immature

    • Milhouse

      No, it is not a “medical argument”, it’s an argument between medicine and superstition, and the anti-vaxx side has no validity at all. Calling them murderers is perfectly true.

    • No they don't

      The anti-vaxxers do NOT have any science backing them up. They use fake science which has been debunked many times over to promote their agenda.

  • The pictures aren't Tznius

    This book shouldn’t be given to any Jewish children because the pictures aren’t Tznius and it refers to Yehuda Makkabi as “Juda”

  • ahavasyisroel

    The Torah only gave real doctors the ability to heal, not people who ‘did their research’

  • Crown Heights Lady

    I just went on Amazon to buy the book and it is out of stock. I guess those 1 star reviews had the opposite effect.

  • Shelley

    Thank you for this book! Sadly, due to a drop in rates, so many diseases we haven’t really heard of in years are on the rise.

  • Empty vessels make most noise

    Milhouse, you sure have a lot to say without citing one shred of evidence for your inane, kool-aid comments.
    Put up, or shut up.

    • Milhouse

      המפורסמות אינן צריכות ראיה. There is no need to cite evidence that water is wet, or that the earth is round.

    • same

      I always wondered the same. My medical research doesn’t agree with the fake news, and the FDA, when asked in a congressional hearing, could not say catagoracally that the ingredients in vaccines do not cause autism. Our very own Einstein knows more than the FDA- There, I found him/her a job!