Credit: Anadolu Agency

After being hit especially hard, New York’s Jewish communities have lent their aid against the pandemic.

The Hasidic and Orthodox Jewish communities of New York City tend to be somewhat reclusive, opting for close-knit familial relationships over general socializing. Unfortunately, when the COVID-19 pandemic started in earnest, this close-knit nature caused a rapid spread of the disease through many Jewish communities. Now that members of these communities have begun to recover from the virus, however, they have found themselves with an interesting opportunity to aid other victims around New York, one which they were all too happy to take up.

Convalescent plasma therapy is an experimental treatment being researched at several medical institutions around the country. It’s a fairly simple procedure; blood plasma is drawn from those who have successfully recovered from COVID-19 and tested for antibodies. If antibodies are present, the blood is then injected into a sick patient to aid in battling the virus. While not a cure-all, there have been some promising results. The biggest hurdle is obtaining blood from those who have recovered from the disease.

Dr. Michael Joyner of the Mayo Clinic realized that due to the severity of the pandemic on Orthodox communities, there may be a higher concentration of recoveries and, by extension, potential blood donors. After a conference call with some of the city’s most influential rabbis, Joyner quickly received over 1,000 vials of blood plasma, donated from Orthodox community members who had recovered. Over 60% of the donated plasma tested positive for antibodies, and was put to work in aiding patients.

Since that initial delivery in April, Jewish communities from all over the US have joined the efforts, donating plasma for research and treatment. So far, over 36,000 people have been successfully treated with the procedure.

“Because we were ravaged by COVID so early on, we recognized that we had the opportunity to give back to the scientific community and to our fellow brothers who are suffering,” Brooklyn pediatrician Dr. Israel Zyskind told NBC. “We don’t just care about ourselves, we care about everyone, and we will do what we can.”