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Published 15:13 IST, January 19th 2021

Israel's ultra-orthodox rabbi says COVID-19 vaccines will turn people 'homosexuals'

Amid growing calls to get inoculated, an ultra-orthodox Israeli rabbi is urging followers not to get vaccinated, claiming he might 'turn them' homosexuals.

Reported by: Vishal Tiwari
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Amid growing calls to get inoculated in order to beat the COVID-19 disease, an ultra-orthodox Israeli rabbi is urging followers not to get vaccinated, claiming it might "turn them" homosexuals. According to Israel Hayom, rabbi Daniel Asor, during an online sermon, has asked his followers to deny the COVID-19 vaccination, claiming it might make them gay. This comes amid the ongoing vaccination drive in Israel and other parts of the world. Israel Hayom reported Asor as saying, "any vaccine made using an embryonic substrate, and we have evidence of this, causes opposite tendencies. Vaccines are taken from an embryonic substrate, and they did that here, too, so ... it can cause opposite tendencies."

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Asor's assertion goes against three senior-most rabbis in the ultra-orthodox society, who have all asked their supporters to get vaccinated as soon as they can. As per the report, rabbis Chaim Kanievsky, Gershon Edelstein, and Shalom Cohen have all asked their followers to get the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it is available to them. However, Asor claims that they have been manipulated by pharmaceutical companies and the World Health Organisation (WHO) into believing that the vaccines are safe. 

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Asor went on to make another bizarre claim that the vaccines are meant to change the existing world order, which is a joint conspiracy of members of the secret society Illuminati and billionaire Bill Gates, who is proactively involved in vaccine manufacturing and distribution through his charitable organisation Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Asor furthered another theory that the virus was unleashed by the above-mentioned forces in order to bring down the world's population. 

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Israel vaccinates over 2 million

Meanwhile, Israel has already administered COVID-19 vaccines to more than 2 million of its 9 million people, which is the highest in the world in terms of per capita. The COVID-19 vaccination in the country started earlier last month after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein became the first to be inoculated. The country has recorded more than 5,55,000 cases and a little over 4,000 deaths to date. 

Read: Israel Trades Pfizer Doses For Medical Data In Vaccine Blitz
 

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15:13 IST, January 19th 2021