COVID vaccines will arrive next week

covid19ch.blogspot.com

Boruch Hashem, the daily average of cases seems to have stabilized and is no longer increasing; we hope IYH soon will not only stagnate, but also decrease. However, COVID remains endemic (always present) in our community and we continue to encourage those who are older and have not been ill to take appropriate precautions, especially with respect to crowded indoor locations and events where mask use and distance are not practiced.

Mitigating this process (to obtain far fewer infections) is obviously a priority for the community. There are several ways to do this, which when applied together, will hopefully result in the disappearance of infection from our environment, and IYH will continue to keep our institutions open. This must be a multifaceted approach.

As much as possible, social events should have limited participants and venues as open as possible to allow distance. We all need to be very aware of not going to simchas when we feel bad in some way. This applies to children as well. Any sick person should be tested immediately. Choosing NOT to know can only result in further spread of the virus.

Those who are sick with COVID and those who have been exposed to someone with COVID, continue to follow the following isolation and quarantine guidelines: People sick with the virus are isolated for 10 days from the onset of symptoms. Those who are closely exposed to the infectious individual must be quarantined (not socialized) and can be tested after 5 days. If negative, they can leave the quarantine state after the 7th, being particularly careful with the use of a personal mask and distance (as they can still be infectious for up to 14 days). If they choose not to be tested, the quarantine lasts at least 10 days with the same conditions as 14 days above.

Unfortunately, and for both known and unknown reasons, the above imperfectly applied measures have not resulted in the virus spreading locally, and we are still witnessing the profound loss and disruption caused by the continued presence of the virus. This fact, together with the pressing need for everyone to resume a normal existence, leads us to a brief discussion about the vaccine:

If the government keeps its promise, the vaccine will be available locally next week, with the current policy initially allowing people over 75 years of age or at high risk to receive the vaccine (details provided by the governor). This will need to be coordinated with your doctor or obtained at one of the vaccination centers in the city which, we hope, will soon be set up.

In general, a successful vaccination program is the greatest promise for the eradication of this disease, and we strongly support the implementation of a generalized vaccination. We understand that any intervention in the medical field carries risks, however, as the serious victims of this disease continue to increase, we need to resort to the tools that Hashem provided us, as we did in previous epidemics, with the belief that we will soon be free from this scourge.

We understand that there are many doubts related to the vaccine, both with regard to its safety and its need. IYH will have a live webinar session by Dr. Naor Bar-Zeev to resolve many of the issues that arise. Dr. Bar-Zeev is an infectious disease physician and statistical epidemiologist who has done extensive research on vaccines and their development, and is an associate professor of International Health and Vaccine Sciences at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Send any questions in advance to [email protected], with “vaccine” in the subject line. Alternatively, send any question via Instagram to @gedaliahupdates. We will try to organize the questions that arise and have Dr. Bar-Zeev resolve them in an organized manner.

Wishing everyone to remain in good health,

Good Shabbat!

-The Gedaliah Society, in conjunction with Dr. Rosen