Health and Safety

How can ordinary people get reliable information about the pandemic in order to assess their risk and make informed decisions? We sat down (remotely) with Baruch Fischhoff, a noted expert in risk assessment.

The COVID-19 crisis has impacted nearly everyone across the globe, and the Jewish community is no exception. Those of us who are Jews of Color – comprising approximately 12 percent of the U.S. Jewish community – feel a particular sense of isolation and anxiety.

The Book of Proverbs instructs us to “speak up for those who cannot speak...to raise our voices on behalf of the vulnerable and downtrodden.” (Proverbs 31:8-9). The individuals who make up America’s prison population are isolated, vulnerable, and voiceless.

We see everything around us through a coronavirus-colored lens these days, searching the past for clues about what is to come. This month, I'm using the rhyme about April showers and May flowers as an occasion for hope, seeing every holiday in May as part of this unfolding pandemic.

I run the Squirrel Hill Health Center, a nonprofit federally funded community health center in Pittsburgh. Many people have asked me what it feels like in the trenches. The answer? We feel very much alone.

As quarantines and lockdowns spread, the descriptions of tzara-at in Leviticus 13 (Parashat Tazria-M'tzora) come to mind. Tzara-at refers to a scaly skin affliction that caused people to sent "outside of the camp" into quarantine so they wouldn't spread tzara-at to others.

"Let me one day soon wake up to praise Your name first and not to think about tragedy and fear. Let all humanity arise from slumber and fight injustice wherever it may occur."

Though handwashing in the medical realm is relatively modern, handwashing in the religious world is decidedly ancient.

"Eternal One: Bless all who come to this sacred place. Keep them healthy. Give them strength to find ways to safeguard our State and protect the lives and livelihoods of every one of its citizens."

This is a prayer is for the wisdom and skills of medical scientists, researchers, and public health officials around the world fighting the novel coronavirus.