Published: 28 April 2020
Last updated: 4 March 2024
BY EARLY MARCH, Shoham, an expert on infectious diseases in transplant patients at Johns Hopkins University, had already realised that convalescent plasma — antibodies spun out of the blood of people who had Covid-19 — could be a key therapy in fighting the disease.
So he called a friend who is an Orthodox Jew - Chaim Lebovits, a shoe wholesaler from Monsey, New York - to ask him if he could encourage others in his community to donate their plasma.
Orthodox Jews, Shoham reasoned, hit early and hard by the virus, probably had an abundance of people with just the right antibodies — people who got sick and recovered, or people who had the virus and never even knew it.
“I had no idea that he would drop everything and completely immerse himself in this,” Shoham said. Lebovits “is giving his community members a chance to do something, now that they have this power in their body to make a difference”.
FULL STORY Orthodox Jews are donating plasma by the thousands to fight Covid-19 (Forward)
US Orthodox Jews rush to donate plasma as states push for more antibody testing (Haaretz)
Some 3,500 from New York and New Jersey communities have donated, says one of the organisers behind the drive
Photo: Orthodox Jews donating blood for plasma Chaim Lebovits (Forward)
