LONDON (AP) – As people across England roamed indoors amid icy temperatures and a national exclusion, nearly 300 elderly men and women lined up outside a health center in north-east London to be vaccinated against COVID-19.
But the wide hats and long black coats that protected them from the cold were more about religion than the weather. These ultra-Orthodox Jews are members of a community particularly hard hit by the virus, which has killed nearly 117,000 people in Britain.
Hoping to break down barriers that sometimes isolate the Orthodox from the wider community, community leaders organized the pop-up vaccination event for Saturday night to coincide with the end of the Sabbath, the Jewish day of rest. They believed that this was the best time to attract believers, as it would fit in perfectly with the schedules after service – and people would be more relaxed because no one worked.
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“I want to see the grandchildren and I haven’t seen them in months, so you know it’s an ideal time to get it,” Asher Warmberg, 66, said after pulling up his sleeve. “And hopefully we can see them soon.”
As Britain’s national health service aims to reach a first dose of vaccine by more than 15 million people by Monday, including health workers and all over the age of 75, health workers are trying to reach those missing. The need is especially great in Stamford Hill, the center of the ultra-Orthodox community in north London.
A nurse prepares an AstraZeneca vaccine during an event to encourage vaccination in the Harody Orthodox Jewish community in Britain, on 13 February 2021 at the John Scott Vaccination Center in London. (AP Photo / Frank Augstein)
As many avoid ultra-Orthodox 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, after the Jewish feast of Purim, a day of feasting and rejoicing.
Local leaders, determined not to let history repeat itself, raised £ 13,840 and asked to be studied by the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine to find out why they were hit so hard.
An analysis of blood samples from 1,242 people found an infection rate of 64% – one of the highest recorded in the world. In contrast, the Office for National Statistics estimates that about 16% of England’s population had COVID-19.
Assistant professor Michael Marks, one of the project’s researchers, said preliminary results suggest the ultra-Orthodox have seen many cases because public health officials did not fully understand the virus last year and because their small community is so close.
COVID-19 probably spread much wider than initially thought, which meant that the government’s messages about the virus lagged behind the real risk. This caused the virus to spread rapidly in the community.
People from the Haredi Orthodox Jewish Community Arrive at an Event to Encourage Vaccination in the Ultra-Orthodox Community at the John Scott Vaccination Center in London, February 13, 2021 (AP Photo / Frank Augstein)
“And then they had a big religious event, which everyone attended, because at the time, the council was going to continue, so I think that could explain the big rise at the beginning,” Marks said.
Community leaders now believe that one way to prevent recurrence is to ensure that as many people as possible are vaccinated. They therefore eliminated excuses for not attending. Except for the timing, the message to get through the community channels went out so people heard about it. In light of sensitivity, it was staffed with both male and female vaccinations.
“It’s just about people feeling comfortable, or people feeling at ease,” said Joel Friedman, director of public affairs at the Interlink Foundation, an umbrella group for Orthodox NGOs.
Other religious leaders participated, such as Mustafa Field of Faiths Forum for London, a Muslim. They hope a cross-religion model will help community organizations take the lead. This is a model that the UK government wants to use across the country as the NHS tries to ensure that the vaccine does not miss other hard-to-reach communities.
“Getting them to do it here is really a wonderful lesson to see how we can repeat it,” said vaccination minister Nadhim Zahawi. “We would therefore consider it an excellent example of faith groups working with the local government and of course the NHS.”
Two men from the Jewish Haredi Orthodox community arrive at an event to encourage the uptake of vaccines in the ultra-Orthodox community at the John Scott Vaccination Center in London, 13 February 2021. (AP Photo / Frank Augstein)
Jewish leaders also hope that the vaccination will help ignore the misconception that ultra-Orthodox Jews pose the danger of COVID-19.
Police raided an Orthodox wedding at a local school last month because it was attended by 100 people in violation of the lock-in rules that prohibit large gatherings. According to an investigation by the Jewish News, it was not an isolated event. Ugly headlines about the event are seen as tender to the entire community, rather than to the perpetrators.
“What happened was unacceptable. “Hopefully such scenes will never happen again,” Friedman said. “But there is a strong feeling that we are being treated a little unfairly and that the whole community is being branded with the same paintbrush, which is very unfair.”
The vaccine is a “big step forward” for the Orthodox community and British society as a whole, Rabbi Michael Biberfeld said as he sat down to get his chance. He said Orthodox Jews have an obligation to “take the vaccine as soon as possible to make sure” that they stay healthy and do not infect other people.
“While I was quoting one of the Israeli rabbis and saying, ‘This is one bite for the person taking the vaccine, but a big leap forward for all of us, for humanity,'” he said.