Last Thursday, Israel’s government announced its “fastest COVID-19 vaccination program in the world” would be expanded even more.
The drive to get everyone in the country 16 and older injected began 20 December when the first Israeli to get vaccinated was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
As of last week, about a third of Israel’s population of just over nine million has already received the first of two doses. The country’s health administration confirmed that close to two million received both shots.
But, as the Wall Street Journal reported last Thursday,
“Infections have continued to increase in recent weeks despite a month-long lockdown that has included a total ban on international flights since last week. Israel increased fines for those violating the lockdown earlier this week but enforcement remains a challenge, particularly among Israel’s hard-hit ultraorthodox community.”
Maintaining the “we’re at war” language favored by many political leaders in discussing COVID, Mr. Netanyahu stated on 2 February, “We will be on the way to victory over the coronavirus, of course, if there are no surprises such as new mutations that we are not familiar with and which could enter Israel.”
TRENDPOST: As we reported in our 12 January Trends Journal, it is common for any virus to mutate numerous times, with the vast majority of new variants less contagious:
Dr. Linda Nabha, an infectious disease expert at the University of Pittsburgh Department of Medicine, was asked to comment on the new coronavirus strain. Dr. Nabha said, “I think it was bound to happen, I am not surprised. It’s natural for viruses to mutate. What it means is the genetic code of the virus changes just a little bit… that is not uncommon to have a different strain of the virus.” (See our article, “MUTANT’ STRAIN: DEADLY MEDIA HYPE & FEAR.”)
Dr. William John Moss, an expert in molecular biology and immunology at Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, agreed: “So all viruses mutate, and RNA viruses mutate particularly, so this virus has always been mutating, just slowly and kind of steadily.”
Mr. Netanyahu, however, emphasized that his government will end the continuing lockdown after 90 percent of those over 50 get vaccinated over the next two weeks. His hard push comes at the same time the Wall Street Journal reports that in Israel “health-care providers have been struggling in recent days to use all of their vaccine supplies as initial enthusiasm for the campaign has diminished, fewer people are showing up for shots and the proportion of people in the target groups still to be vaccinated shrinks.” In fact, over the past week, the number of those lining up for the shots dropped by more than 50 percent.
TRENDPOST: To date, about 5,000 Israelis have died from the coronavirus out of a population of 9,200,000 (0.05 percent).
As for who is dying and why, according to data reported by The Jerusalem Post, it is the elderly and infirm:
“The data illustrated that in the first wave of the virus (March-May 2020), the average age was 81, whereas in the second wave (June – October 2020), the average age was 79, according to the newspaper. In the current third wave, the average age is 77. The loss of life following the virus is apparently greater than initially estimated.
The data also indicated the risk factors that the deceased had suffered from: 1,463 (33%) suffered from hypertension, 1,140 (26%) were diabetics, 923 (21%) had heart disease, 353 (8%) suffered from chronic lung disease, 131 (3%) suffered from immunosuppression and 46 (1%) suffered from chronic liver disease. Some of the deceased suffered from more than one risk factor, according to Israel Hayom.”
There it is, in black and white, the indisputable fact: elderly with chronic illnesses are the vast majority of virus victims.
Despite the data, governments are not taking measures to protect the most vulnerable and instead are making up rules for social distancing, mask-wearing, capacity limitations, curfews, etc., which lack a scientific basis and destroy the lives and livelihoods of entire nations.
