Misinformation Leading To Coronavirus Spikes Among New York City's Orthodox Jewish Communities

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo addressed the growing number of COVID cases in largely Orthodox Jewish communities in New York City on Tuesday as part of his daily pandemic briefings.

Cuomo was especially critical of the lack of mask wearing in some of these communities, something that has been a struggle for local officials since the pandemic hit the U.S. in February.

As of Tuesday, New York had over 461,000 confirmed cases and 32,737 reported deaths from coronavirus.

“We have at this point a cluster problem. A cluster problem is caused by lack of compliance,” Cuomo said. “Why was there lack of compliance? Because the local government failed to do its compliance job. If you do not now control and attack the cluster, you have community spread. We're not there yet.”

The spikes in Orthodox Jewish communities are symbolic of the backlash over mask wearing from strictly religious communities across the U.S.

“It’s a medical emergency,” Dr. Stuart Ditchek, a doctor in a largely Orthodox Jewish community in New York City’s Brooklyn borough, told Jewish Week. “But unfortunately there is a significant element of the community that denies that there is a crisis going on.”

Met Council CEO David Greenfield said one of the biggest reasons for the lack of masks in New York City’s Orthodox Jewish communities is misinformation. This includes questioning the effectiveness of masks, the coronavirus is weakened, or the media has overblown the pandemic’s severity.

“Their main source of news tends to be right-wing news sources,” Greenfield said. “The right-wing media downplays the effectiveness of masks.”

Videos of people preaching similar misinformation have been commonplace on social media since the first lockdowns were imposed in March and April. However, the spread of misinformation is said to be worse within some Orthodox Jewish communities because of how tight-knit they are.

“People are firm in their beliefs and they’re rejecting expert findings and scientific findings,” said one Brooklyn-based doctor, whose name has not been released. “It took them seeing deaths – and unfortunately that community saw many deaths – it took that to change.

“When it gets to that point, it’s already too late," the doctor said to Jewish Week.

Cuomo said he plans to try and address this head on in the coming week by meeting with leaders in many of the state’s Jewish communities. He also took the chance to reiterate the state’s firm stance on mask wearing, regardless of religious or political beliefs.

“Mask wearing is a state law. It’s a law. It’s not ‘it would be nice if you could. I really think you should. Every health official says it’s a good idea. It’s a sign of respect,’” Cuomo said. “It’s also a law, OK.”

“I don’t care what your political opinion is. I don’t care what your religious opinion is. Mask wearing is a law.”