Jewish men in the United Kingdom have double the risk of dying from the coronavirus than the general population according to a report published on Friday, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) reported.
The statistical report, published by the UK’s Office for National Statistics, analyzed mortality rates in England and Wales according to religious identity.
According to the report, Jewish men in the UK suffered a mortality rate of 187.9 deaths per 100,000 compared to 92.6 deaths per 100,000 in the general population, which in the UK is primarily Christian. The mortality rate for Jewish women was 94.3 deaths per 100,000 compared with 54.6 in the general population.
The Jewish Chronicle of London quoted Nick Stripe, a senior official at the UK’s Office for National Statistics, as saying that the report showed that “Jewish males are at twice the risk of Christian males, and Jewish women are also at higher risk.”
The report also stated that Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs were more at risk at dying from COVID-19 than Christian Brits or those with no stated religion.
The report attributed the difference in mortality rates between religious groups to “the different circumstances in which members of these groups are known to live; for example living in areas with higher levels of socioeconomic deprivation and differences in ethnic makeup.”
At the time of the census carried out for the report, the Jewish community had reported 453 fatalities due to the coronavirus. Currently, the number of fatalities in the Jewish community is 497, according to a report last week in the UK’s Jewish News.
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
4 Responses
I believe they consider a Jew to be anyone who so identifies in an official census, which includes secular Jews. Secular Jews are significantly older, on the average, than frum Jews (since secular Jews are extremely infertile). Covid19 mortality, like most diseases, correlates with age, and communities with low fertility are older than those with higher fertility.
Urban populations are also less healthy than rural ones.
So if you are worried about Covid19, move out of big cities, and have lots of babies.
Could this high death rate among Jewish men and women be the result of:
1 – attending minyans;
2 – an older population among Jews;
3 – for Jewish women, sleeping with Jewish men;
4 – Hashem is not happy with UK Jews?
huju: I like my explanation better. If comes from all Jews preferring big metropolian areas, and from non-frum Jews having low fertility leading to them being old. Most Jews (note: I didn’t say frum Jews) only go to a minyan in Tishri. If Ha-Shem was unhappy with the Yidden in the UK, one can be certain that BoJo would not have won the last election.
To akuperma: My take on Boris Johnson (Bojo?) is that he is not good for the Jews.