Life

Mayim Bialik Insists ‘I’m Not Anti-Vaccine’ — But Is She?

By Anne Cohen February 11, 2015

Mayim Bialik really, really wants you to know that she is not anti-vaccine. The actress took to Facebook on Tuesday to dispel what she called the “hysteria and anger” around her stance on the controversial subject.

Post by Official Mayim Bialik Page.

The “Big Bang Theory” star and proud science nerd (she has a Ph.D. in neuroscience) has been accused to be rooting for the anti-vaxxer camp. In a post for Sisterhood published last week, Bethany Mandel pointed out that the Bialik had posted an angry rebuttal to a pro-vaccination piece on her Facebook page. The post was deleted only hours later.

Did pressure from the Jewish community, her biggest and most loyal fan base, make Mayim change her mind? Or is she, as she claims, genuinly not an anti-vaxxer and just objecting to the black and white categorization of what is Jewish and un-Jewish? Given what she posted on Tuesday, one could give her the benefit of the doubt.

But a second statement, posted to Facebook on Wednesday morning, waffles once again:

Post by Official Mayim Bialik Page.

Ok. I get the whole “don’t tell me what to do with my kid” attitude when it comes to daycare. Or breastfeeding. Or attachment parenting. But vaccines? That’s just a cop-out. You either think vaccines are a necessary and vital part of keeping your kid (and the rest of us) safe or you don’t. As a woman, choice is a word I value — and don’t use lightly. But choice doesn’t really come into this equation.

Anne Cohen was the Forward’s deputy digital media editor. When she’s not looking for the secret Jewish history of Voodoo in New Orleans, or making lists about Ruth Bader Ginsburg, she writes for The Assimilator. She graduated from the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism with an M.S. magazine concentration in 2012.

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