[Avodah] Orthodox Union Guidance Regarding Coronavirus

[Mendel Singer]

On 12/18/2020 1:17 PM, Prof. Levine via Avodah wrote:
> From
> https://together.ou.org/page/guidance
>
> Guidance Regarding COVID-19 
> Guidance Statements & Policies. December 15, 2020 11:45 AM EST. OU/RCA 
> COVID-19 Vaccine Guidance. The following is shared based on the 
> guidance of our poskim, Harav Hershel Schachter " and Harav 
> Mordechai Willig ", with the support of Harav Dovid Cohen ".
...

I just heard Rav Willig tonight say that he asked for the language to 
say "requires us" instead of merely "strongly encouraging" but I was sure
he said he was disappointed that they didn't go with that language. I
see in the link there are 2 paragraphs, one with each language. Reading
this carefully, the 3 poskim all said "requires", but the OU only said
"strongly encourage". Here are the 2 paragraphs:

The poskim:

Notwithstanding these factors, the conclusion of our poskim is that,
pursuant to the advice of your personal health care provider, the Torah
obligation to preserve our lives and the lives of others requires us to
vaccinate for COVID-19 as soon as a vaccine becomes available.

OU:

In consideration of the guidance of our poskim, we strongly encourage
all those eligible to access the COVID-19 vaccination to do so. We hope
and pray that such steps will help bring to an end the tragic toll that
the pandemic has taken on our community and beyond.

mendel