Rabbi Kanievsky assures couples seeking to have kids COVID vaccine is safe

Kanievsky, a leader of the Ashkenazi, non-hassidic haredi community, has encouraged vaccination and has instructed teachers and students to get vaccinated.

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
One of the leading rabbis of the non-hassidic haredi world, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, 92. October, 2020. (photo credit: SPOKESPERSON FOR RABBI CHAIM KANIEVSKY)
One of the leading rabbis of the non-hassidic haredi world, Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, 92. October, 2020.
(photo credit: SPOKESPERSON FOR RABBI CHAIM KANIEVSKY)
Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) leader Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky attempted on Wednesday to reassure young couples who are seeking to have children that the coronavirus vaccine is safe and won't impact their fertility.
In a video circulated on social media, Kanievsky is told that "Young men and women who don't have children yet or who are waiting to have more children are afraid that if they take the vaccine it will disrupt their ability to have more children. They asked if there's a reason to be concerned." Kanievsky replied "no" and gave a blessing that these couples will succeed in having children.
 

Kanievsky and Rabbi Gershon Edelstein, leaders of the Ashkenazi, non-hassidic haredi community, have said that people should get vaccinated and have instructed teachers and students of haredi schools to get vaccinated ahead of the expected reopening of the school system after the national lockdown.
As of mid-January, the rate of COVID-19 vaccinations in the ultra-Orthodox sector was lagging behind the national average, although officials in the Health Ministry have said that several factors, including high infection rates and residents who get vaccinated in other cities, explain the lag and they are not concerned by the situation.
Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.