Crackpot rabbi thinks the COVID-19 vaccine can turn people gay
Rabbi Daniel Asor claimed that coronavirus vaccines could turn people gay in a sermon. (YouTube)
Rabbi Daniel Asor has claimed that vaccines against COVID-19 can turn people gay, and we are so, so tired.
Asor, an Israeli rabbi, told his followers that they should avoid being vaccinated against COVID-19 as doing so could “turn them” into homosexuals, Israel Hayom reports.
The rabbi’s comments come as vaccines are being rolled out across the world in an effort to curb the coronavirus pandemic.
For many in Europe, the United States, and other countries that have failed to maintain control over the virus, the vaccine represents the only hope for a return of some kind of normality.
But that isn’t stopping Asor from falsely pushing conspiracy theories about both the vaccine and the virus itself, likely stopping many of his followers from getting vaccinated in the process.
Asor made his comments in a sermon shared on social media, according to an Israeli news outlet.
In the sermon, he claimed that “any vaccine made using an embryonic substrate… causes opposite tendencies”.
“Vaccines are taken from an embryonic substrate, and they did that here, too, so… it can cause opposite tendencies,” he added.
Rabbi Daniel Asor pushed bizarre conspiracy theories about COVID-19 in his sermon
The rabbi went on to claim that coronavirus, and vaccines made to combat the virus, are the work of a “global malicious government” made up of the Freemasons, the Illuminati and Bill Gates.
He said they are all conspiring to create a “new world order” and that they released COVID-19 in an effort to “cull [the] global population”.
Needless to say, there is not even a scrap of evidence to support any of Asor’s wild claims.
Furthermore, it should go without saying that vaccines cannot “turn” anybody gay. There is no evidence that any vaccine has ever resulted in a person changing their sexual orientation. Being gay is not a choice, nor is it a side-effect of a vaccine, as suggested by Asor.
The rabbi went on to baselessly claim that the World Health Organisation (WHO) and Pfizer and Moderna – two of the pharmaceutical companies that created vaccines against COVID-19 – were “criminal organisations”.
Havruta, an LGBT+ organisation that works with the Haredi community, mocked the rabbi in a statement, saying they were “gearing up to welcome our impending new members” following wide scale rollout of the vaccine in Israel.
Israel has received international praise for the quick rollout of vaccines against coronavirus – however, the country has also faced criticism for its failure to vaccinate Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.
