Researchers study COVID-19 in Montreal’s Orthodox Jewish community

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Montreal’s Orthodox Jewish community, which has been disproportionately affected by COVID-19, is the subject of a long-term research study looking at participants’ immunity levels and how best to protect others marginalized communities across Canada.

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High number of COVID-19 cases among Orthodox Jews prompted Refuah V’Chesed medical clinic in Mile End to approach McGill University’s Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences and offer the collaborative study , supported by the Government of Canada through the COVID-19 Working Group on Immunity.

“We think it’s a community that can share a lot of lessons for us,” said sociologist Dr. Peter Nugus, associate professor in the McGill Department of Family Medicine and lead investigator of the study. “Unity is a very important value in this community. It’s the same sort of thing we’ve all been faced with: How do we live together and what is the relationship between individual freedom and the public good? “

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Details of the research project, which has been underway for two months and will continue for another year and a half, will be released on Tuesday.

After more than a dozen planning meetings between scientists and members of the Jewish community, a multidisciplinary team of sociologists, anthropologists, epidemiologists and biostatisticians was assembled to study how the disease affected this segment of the population.

The first objective is to determine the prevalence of immunity to the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the Orthodox Jewish community, whether through infection or vaccination or both, Nugus said, ” recognizing genetics and common health problems, beliefs and behaviors of members “.

Researchers take blood samples from 1,250 participants before and after vaccinations to study immune responses. They will also examine how strong immune responses remain over time.

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The team will interview all participants, conduct in-depth interviews and conduct observational studies within the Orthodox Jewish community to understand the daily life and challenges of the participants.

“We wanted to know, within this tight-knit community, to get a feel for the evolution of the disease and the levels of immunity in the population,” said Aron Friedlander, senior medical liaison for Refuah V’Chesed. “We know a lot in the community had COVID, but a lot had no symptoms, so that was one of the reasons we wanted to move forward. The reasons for the above-average COVID-19 numbers are still being investigated, Friedlander said. A large number of children as well as multigenerational families living together are part of the theories.

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The teams interview members of several Orthodox Jewish groups in and around the city, visit community centers and synagogues and knock on 800 doors in Outremont and the Mile End to spread information and ask for their participation. To date, they have held 16 vaccination clinics, where participants are also asked if they are willing to donate blood to check antibody levels.

“We were pleasantly surprised at the generosity and willingness to participate,” said Nugus. “They said, ‘Yes, I want to do this for the community – that’s how we get to know each other.’ “

On Monday, Nugus was in the Boisbriand suburb north of Montreal. The Tosh community of 4,000 Hasidic Jews who live there made headlines when an outbreak at the start of the pandemic prompted public health officials to order the entire community to self-quarantine.

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The more they learn about Orthodox communities, the more researchers find they have in common with everyone else, Nugus said. They want to stay healthy. They want their loved ones to stay healthy. Levels of adherence to safety protocols and willingness to be vaccinated are similar to those seen in society at large – most are ready, but some are not, he said.

Research that examines both immunology and human behavior is crucial for governments to find the best way to tackle future waves of viruses or new pandemics, Nugus said.

“We don’t control nature; nature is still avenging itself. So we really need to develop these avenues of investigation that combine immunology with sociology, also looking at behaviors and beliefs.

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“If health policy stems from what is important to people and from an understanding of why people do what they do, and how, why and where people come together as they do, then there will be probably more compliance.

“At the end of the day, it’s behaviors that determine whether government policy works across the board. “

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