LONDON (AP) – As people across England gather inside, amid freezing temperatures and the national blockade, nearly 300 elderly men and women have lined up outside a health center in the North East London to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
But wide-brimmed hats and long black coats that protected them from the cold were more about religion than weather. These ultra-Orthodox Jews are members of a community that has been particularly affected by the virus, which has killed nearly 117,000 people in Britain.
Hoping to break down the barriers that sometimes isolate Orthodox from wider society, community leaders staged a pop-up vaccination event on Saturday night to coincide with the end of the Sabbath, the Jewish holiday. They thought this was the best time to attract believers, as it would fit perfectly into after-work programs – and people would be more relaxed because no one was working.
“I want to see my grandchildren and I haven’t seen them in months, so you know this is the perfect time to get it,” said 66-year-old Asher Warmberg after she rolled up his sleeve. “And we hope to see them soon.”
As the UK National Health Service achieves its goal of administering a first dose of vaccine to more than 15 million people, including health workers and all over the age of 75, authorities are trying to it reaches those who have missed national actions. The need is particularly high in Stamford Hill, the center of the ultra-Orthodox community in north London.
Since many ultra-Orthodox avoided social media and the internet, people here have been slow to realize the dangers of COVID-19, and their community has experienced some of the highest infection rates in London. Many fell ill in March last year, after the Jewish festival of Purim, a day of celebration and joy.
Local leaders, determined not to allow history to repeat itself, raised £ 10,000 ($ 13,840) and asked to be studied by the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine to find out why they were so affected.
An analysis of blood samples from 1,242 people found an infection rate of 64% – one of the highest recorded anywhere in the world. In contrast, the Office for National Statistics estimates that about 16% of the UK population had COVID-19.
Assistant Professor Michael Marks, one of the project’s researchers, said preliminary results suggest that ultra-Orthodox have seen a lot of cases because public health officials did not fully understand the virus last spring and because their small community is so of tight.
COVID-19 was probably circulating much longer than originally thought, which meant that government messages about the virus lagged behind the real risk. This allowed the virus to spread rapidly in the community.
“And then they had a big religious event, which we all attended, because at that point the advice was to keep going, so I think that could explain the big increase at the beginning,” Marks said.
Community leaders now believe that one way to prevent recurrence is to ensure that as many people as possible can be vaccinated. So they removed the excuses for not participating. In addition to synchronization, the message that will appear has been broadcast through community channels, so people have heard about it. In light of the sensitivities, it has been equipped with vaccinators for both men and women.
“It’s just that people feel comfortable, people feel at ease,” said Joel Friedman, public affairs director for the Interlink Foundation, an umbrella group for Orthodox volunteer organizations.
Other faith leaders also attended, such as Mustafa Field of Faiths Forum for London, a Muslim. They hope that an inter-religious model will help community organizations take the lead in the future. It is a model that the British government hopes to use across the country as the NHS tries to ensure that the vaccination mechanism does not miss other hard-to-reach communities.
“Doing so here is really a wonderful lesson to see how we can replicate some of this,” said Vaccination Minister Nadhim Zahawi, who attended the event. So we will take this as an excellent model for faith groups working with local government and, of course, the NHS.
Jewish leaders also hope that the vaccination effort will help dispel the misconception that ultra-Orthodox Jews ignore the danger posed by COVID-19.
Police raided an Orthodox wedding at a local school last month because 100 people attended, violating blocking rules that ban large gatherings. A Jewish News investigation suggested it was not an isolated event. The ugly headlines about the event were seen as the whole community rather than breaking the rules.
“It simply came to our notice then. We hope that such scenes will never be repeated, “said Friedman. “But there is a strong feeling that we are being treated a little unfairly and the whole community is marked with the same brush, which is very unfair.”
The vaccine is a “big step forward” for the Orthodox community and for British society as a whole, Rabbi Michael Biberfeld said as he sat down to shoot himself. He said Orthodox Jews have an obligation to “get the vaccine as soon as possible to make sure” that they stay healthy and do not infect others.
“As I quoted one of the Israeli rabbis, saying, ‘This is a sting for the person getting the vaccine, but a huge leap for all of us, for humanity,'” he said.
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This story corrected the name of a person receiving a dose of vaccine to Asher Warmberg.
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