{"id":108,"date":"2020-03-24T22:26:26","date_gmt":"2020-03-25T02:26:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/web.colby.edu\/coronaguidance\/?p=108"},"modified":"2020-07-21T09:28:21","modified_gmt":"2020-07-21T13:28:21","slug":"kavod-vnichum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/coronaguidance\/2020\/03\/24\/kavod-vnichum\/","title":{"rendered":"Kavod v&#8217;Nichum: Taharah Safety Recommendations"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4 id=\"new\">New Recommendations as of March 24<sup>th<\/sup>:<\/h4>\n<p>The Coronavirus Pandemic is getting worse. Across the countries, we are seeing more instruction on appropriate responses.<\/p>\n<p>We also recognize that everything we do has risk and benefits. Despite the many unknowns, these recommendations will attempt to balance between the benefit for the community and the protection of our\u00a0<em>taharah<\/em>\u00a0teams.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s be clear about what the situations are where teams might be at risk. We consider for the purposes of this memo the word \u201c<em>taharah<\/em>\u201d to mean a group of team members assembling at a funeral home for the purpose of preparing a body for burial, including but not limited to the following actions:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Team members dressing in PPE (personal protective equipment)<\/li>\n<li>Washing the body physically<\/li>\n<li>Pouring water to purify the body and soul spiritually<\/li>\n<li>Drying the body<\/li>\n<li>Dressing the body in\u00a0<em>tachrichim<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Casketing the body<\/li>\n<li>Or possible variations of the above, such as just placing a body bag into the\u00a0<em>aron<\/em>\u00a0and the\u00a0<em>tachrichim<\/em>\u00a0on top of the bag<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ironically, the greatest\u00a0<em>taharah<\/em>\u00a0risk today seems not to come from the\u00a0<em>meit\/meitah<\/em>, but from us. We must consider unexpected risks here and do what will be most effective in keeping teams safe.<\/p>\n<p>Our experts in this field are concerned about:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>When we leave our homes go out to the funeral home to do a\u00a0<em>taharah<\/em>, we break the social compact that asks that all unnecessary travel and gathering be eliminated.<\/li>\n<li>Spread of the virus is most dangerous among individuals, hence social distancing is in place. We are unable to protect the\u00a0<em>metaharim<\/em>\u00a0from each other in this way, before, during and after the\u00a0<em>taharah<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>Some\u00a0<em>taharah<\/em>\u00a0teams are not taking our PPE (personal protective equipment) recommendations seriously, or not having watchers (who make sure PPE is put on and taken off properly) or are not regularly practicing putting on and taking off PPE.<\/li>\n<li>PPE is currently in short supply in many areas and hence we are ethically asked to not use these for\u00a0<em>taharot<\/em>, and to instead prioritize this important equipment for medical purposes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>These together lead us to believe that to do\u00a0<em>taharah<\/em>\u00a0at this time is actually an increase to the possibility of risk of viral exposure \u2013 the opposite of\u00a0<em>pikuach nefesh<\/em>. It is recognized that we\u2019ve lived and done\u00a0<em>taharot<\/em>\u00a0through other contagious disease outbreaks, and we continue to live with MRSA, Staph, C. diff, Hep B&amp;C, and more. The current situation is different because we are not only concerned about transmission from the decedent but also from each other. This requires immediate action until this outbreak is under control.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Our panel of experts now strongly recommends that during these periods of widespread transmission of COVID-19, and especially when communities are told to limit personal exposure,\u00a0<em>Chevrah Kadisha<\/em>\u00a0groups should not do any form of\u00a0<em>taharot<\/em>.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We realize that by making this recommendation, many questions are raised including when it will be OK and who will decide to resume doing\u00a0<em>taharot<\/em>. We pledge to review these recommendations regularly and to communicate any changes needed.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the above recommendation to not do\u00a0<em>taharot<\/em>\u00a0at this time, we understand that some groups may nevertheless choose to do\u00a0<em>taharot<\/em>. For those people we add the following modifications to our March 8 recommendations:<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><em>Taharah<\/em>. Each team member should put on their PPE in a clean room and then enter the taharah room before the next person enters the clean room and puts on their PPE. Team members should leave the\u00a0<em>taharah<\/em>\u00a0room similarly doff PPE and exit one person at time.<\/li>\n<li>We suggest that\u00a0<em>Chevrah Kadisha<\/em>\u00a0groups should begin making their own PPE where possible, especially face masks and shields, for use by their\u00a0<em>taharah<\/em>\u00a0Look for instructions and patterns on our website, as well as suggestions for cleaning and re-use. Please note that home-made masks do not filter out disease, they just contain sneezes and help minimize spread of our own droplets.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h4 id=\"old\">Recommendations as of March 8<sup>th<\/sup>:<\/h4>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Every Chevrah Kadisha should purchase, read and study the booklet<\/strong>\u00a0 published by Kavod V\u2019nichum, titled\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.jewish-funerals.org\/product\/health-and-safety-precautions-for-taharah\/\"><strong>Health and Safety Precautions for Taharah \u2013 A Guide to Understanding Potential Risk and Injuries While Performing the Holy Work of the Chevrah Kadisha<\/strong><\/a><strong>\u00a0<\/strong>\u2013 Revised Second Edition.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Do not assume that you will know<\/strong>\u00a0if the\u00a0<em>meit\/meitah<\/em>\u00a0has coronavirus or any other disease. You might or might not have information, and that information might or might not be accurate. Do assume that every\u00a0<em>meit\/meitah<\/em>\u00a0has some disease and therefore use Standard Precautions.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Understand what we know about transmission<\/strong>\u00a0of disease in the\u00a0<em>taharah<\/em>\u00a0room. Possible routes of disease spread are:\n<ul>\n<li>Airborne and Aerosolized \u2013 no, the\u00a0<em>meit\/meitah<\/em>\u00a0is not breathing<\/li>\n<li>Bloodborne \u2013 yes, blood and other body fluids may have the disease<\/li>\n<li>Contact \u2013 yes, the disease may be on the skin of the\u00a0<em>meit\/meitah<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Droplet \u2013 yes, it is possible that if an object, like a scissors, falls into a pool of blood, that the disease could travel as infected droplets<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Protect against transmission<\/strong>\u00a0in the\u00a0<em>taharah<\/em>\u00a0room by using Standard Precautions\n<ul>\n<li>Wear gloves to protect our hands<\/li>\n<li>Practice the discipline of not touching our face so that the disease cannot enter our body through our mucous membranes \u2013 eyes, nose and mouth \u2013<\/li>\n<li>Use Personal Protective Equipment or PPE that we discard before we leave the\u00a0<em>taharah<\/em>\u00a0room so that we don\u2019t bring diseases home with us<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>We\u00a0<strong>suggest using face coverings, such as face shields<\/strong>,\n<ul>\n<li>They can prevent splash droplets from touching your face<\/li>\n<li>They can reinforce the discipline of not touching your face during a\u00a0<em>taharah<\/em><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Review with your\u00a0<em>taharah<\/em>\u00a0team pages 11 and 12 in the Health and Safety booklet regarding PPE and\u00a0<em>taharah<\/em>\u00a0room discipline.\u00a0<strong>Practice donning and doffing PPE.<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Establish policies<\/strong>\u00a0for your\u00a0<em>Chevrah Kadisha<\/em>\u00a0that include:\n<ul>\n<li>If\u00a0<em>taharah<\/em>\u00a0team members are sick, they should not do the\u00a0<em>taharah<\/em><\/li>\n<li>If\u00a0<em>taharah<\/em>\u00a0team members\u2019 health is compromised, they should consider not doing the\u00a0<em>taharah<\/em>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Discuss with your funeral home how they clean<\/strong>\u00a0surfaces such as the\u00a0<em>taharah<\/em>\u00a0table. A 10% bleach solution has been shown to kill most diseases.<\/li>\n<li>Be aware that\u00a0<strong>it is difficult to predict what will happen<\/strong>\u00a0in the future, but be prepared for:\n<ul>\n<li>Supply shortages of PPE<\/li>\n<li>Increased deaths and increased requests for\u00a0<em>taharot<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Decreased availability of funeral home staff due to sickness<\/li>\n<li>Decreased availability of\u00a0<em>taharah<\/em>\u00a0team members due to sickness<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><em>Chevrah Kadisha<\/em>\u00a0members may want to\u00a0<strong>have a role in helping their community<\/strong>\u00a0by providing information and support, especially for vulnerable community members.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New Recommendations as of March 24th: The Coronavirus Pandemic is getting worse. Across the countries, we are seeing more instruction on appropriate responses. We also recognize that everything we do has risk and benefits. Despite the many unknowns, these recommendations will attempt to balance between the benefit for the community and the protection of our\u00a0taharah\u00a0teams. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1764,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[524639,509577],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/coronaguidance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/coronaguidance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/coronaguidance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/coronaguidance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1764"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/coronaguidance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/coronaguidance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1608,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/coronaguidance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108\/revisions\/1608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/coronaguidance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/coronaguidance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.colby.edu\/coronaguidance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}