Confront virus with tefillah and clean hands, not panic

“Take a deep breath and relax.”

That was one of several pieces of advice imparted by Rabbi Dr. Aaron E. Glatt to 1,200 people who phoned in to a live conference call Tuesday night that was moderated by Rabbi Ya’akov Trump, mora d’asra of the Young Israel of Lawrence-Cedarhurst.

The coronavirus outbreak has infected several members of New York’s Orthodox community and led this week to the closing of two SAR campuses in Riverdale, Yeshiva University and its boys high school in Manhattan, Westchester Torah Academy in White Plains, and the Young Israel of New Rochelle.

Dr. Glatt sought to tamp down any panic and put the outbreak in perspective, explaining that influenza affects more people and is vastly more lethal than the coronavirus.

“Try to diminish the hysteria and calm people down,” he said. People should be more concerned with influenza, which is “a far greater threat” — and get vaccinated.

“If they haven’t been vaccinated yet, they and their children should be vaccinated” against the flu, he insisted, adding that this year’s flu vaccine cuts the flu risk roughly in half.

No child under 10 has died anywhere in world as a result of coroavirus, while in the same period there have been 125 pediatric deaths by influenza, he said.

For both diseases, he urged compliance with the rules of proper hygiene, which he outlined (wash hands for a minimum of 20 seconds using regular soap; use Purell; clean household surfaces; cough or sneeze into a tissue and throw the tissue in the garage or cough into an elbow if there’s no tissue; stay home with respiratory symptons, etc.)

“Most important, after we wash our hands, is to daven to Hakodosh Baruch Hu,” he said.

“Every posek I’ve discussed this with has said that a person with upper respiratory illness should not go to shul — some would consider them a rodef,” he said. Anyone with a contagious respiratory illness can be putting people at risk and should self-quarantine; those assisting such a person should keep a distance of 6 feet.

“They say a sick person should not go out and endanger other people.”

And those surgical masks? Fuggedaboutit. Only someone who is sick should be wearing one; for others they can actually be a problem.

Rabbi Dr. Glatt, chairman of the Department of Medicine and chief of infectious diseases and hospital epidemiologist at Mt. Sinai South Nassau, as well as assistant rabbi at the Young Israel of Woodmere, offered this additional advice:

•For those who are not sick, it’s ok to travel except in locations where the problem is widespread — so “there’s no reason to think that it’s not safe” to travel to Israel and around the U.S.

•“There’s no reason to stay away from shul at this point in time,” but “people who are sick should not be going.”

•“There’s no mitzvah to shake hands in wishing someone a good Shabbos,” and it’s ok to wash hands on Shabbos.”

Dr. Norman Blumental, director of the OHEL Miriam Center for Trauma, Bereavement and Crisis Response, joined Rabbi Dr. Glatt on Tuesday’s call in urging calm. He suggested that parents carefully weigh their own attitudes about the coronavirus problem before speaking with their children.

“Give over a modicum of concern but no panic,” he said. “The manner and tone in which we give over those words can have a greater impact than the words themselves.”

Rabbi Trump concluded the call by reminding everyone that “we should be thinking in the plural about the many people in need.”

This week’s school closings came after a 50-year-old Orthodox attorney from New Rochelle, who works in midtown Manhattan, tested positive for COVID-19. He has a son at YU who tested positive and at least one child at SAR.

At a news conference on Wednesday, Gov. Andrew Cuomo shared that the man’s wife, daughter and neighbor had tested positive for the virus as well, and that the son who attends YU had been symptomatic prior to his father’s hospitalization. He provided no details on the son’s condition. The father had been reported in critical condition.

“The number of people infected will continue to increase,” Cuomo added. “It is a function of mathematics. It is going to be dozens and dozens and dozens. …  This one person goes back, infects the wife, infects the two sons, infects the daughter. That is one connection that is going to continue to exponentially increase.”

YU President Ari Berman said late Wednesday that YU would remain closed through Purim.

YU’s annual Red Sarachek Basketball Tournament for Orthodox high schools across the United States and Canada, scheduled for March 12 through 16, has been postponed, he said.

Many shuls discussed the unfolding crisis with their members.

The Hanhala of Aish Kodesh in Woodmere said extra cleaning was done to its building and its leaders were monitoring “all governmental and Halachic recommendations that are made by those who have expertise in this area.

 “We must all do our Hishtadlus, which, of course, includes davening for our safety and for a refuah shleimah to all those affected.”

Chabad of Mineola Rabbi Anchelle Perl wrote about how “some Chinese people have found themselves scapegoated as somehow being personally responsible for the virus’ spread.” He urged people to “combat attacks and sterotyping on social media.”

“We know from history, ours and yours, that such fear mongering can be devastating,” he continued. “But there’s something deeper going on. The coronavirus reminds us just how interconnected we are, how impacted we are by one another.”

The coronavirus was impacting Jewish communities around the world, the JTA reported:

•A group of persons from New York were potentially exposed to coronavirus while attending AIPAC. The individuals are in self-quarantine and no one who attended AIPAC has tested positive for coronavirus so far.

•In Milan, an epicenter of infection, houses of worship were ordered closed. That meant a scaled-down celebration for one bar mitzvah boy, whose party was supposed to have 600 guests but instead was for family only. (A Syrian Muslim donated a tree in the boy’s honor after reading a JTA report on this.)

•130 kosher-for-Passover resorts around the world are watching their reservations closely. A few in Italy had already canceled by early March.

•The Auschwitz Memorial and Museum has called on organizers of trips to the site to refrain from bringing visitors from countries that have been affected by the coronavirus.

•Israel opened special quarantine voting sites for the national election on Monday. But some workers, fearing disease, declined to open ballots from those sites.