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The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services booked an unusual guest interviewer for one of its public health events this fall: Shulem Lemmer, the first Hasidic singer to sign with a major record label.
Lemmer has no particular expertise in public health, but he grew up in Brooklyn, home to many ultraorthodox Jews like himself. He's seen as a trusted messenger in parts of the Hasidic community that, despite suffering a disproportionate number of hospitalizations and deaths from COVID-19, have on some occasions resisted New York's pandemic restrictions.
In the end, the interview never aired — HHS changed its mind about having entertainers explain COVID-19. Still, public health experts say the idea of enlisting respected and well-known leaders to help explain the health message is exactly the right way to disarm and persuade skeptics — and more crucial than ever this winter as cases and deaths from the coronavirus surge all across the U.S .