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Podcast: North Star with Ellin Bessner
Episode: COVID in 2022: Canada's new observantly Jewish medical officer of health explains what's to come
Description: In November, as Omicron emerged as the new dominant strain of COVID-19, York Region in Ontario appointed Dr. Barry Pakes as their new medical officer of health. The region covers nine urban centres and more than a million people, including Canada's densest Jewish community, in Thornhill. So the fact that Pakes is an Orthodox Jew who studied, in part, at a yeshiva, gives him a unique advantage to liaise with local Jewish institutions and organizations when discussing how to fight the pandemic.
While Hanukkah gatherings lead to outbreaks across the community, especially in schools that had to...