Is Israel doing enough to protect itself from the coronavirus?
Eyal Lehshem, director of the Center for Travel Medicine and Tropical Diseases at Sheba Medical Center, told The Jerusalem Post about the possibility of the virus coming to Israel.
By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMANPeople waiting for passengers wear masks at Pearson airport arrivals, shortly after Toronto Public Health received notification of Canada's first presumptive confirmed case of coronavirus, in Toronto, Ontario, Canada January 25, 2020(photo credit: REUTERS/CARLOS OSORIO)
With more than 300 people dead and over 14,000 people confirmed as infected with the coronavirus, the Internet has become flooded with misinformation and panic-driven conspiracy theories.The Washington Times, for example, claimed last week that the virus was leaked from a military lab in Wuhan, a report that was quickly shared on social media and re-reported by a number of like-minded outlets. In Israel, a social-media account called “Spectator Index” tweeted that the Israeli government will send all Chinese in Israel to internment camps.“Some forces with ulterior motives are mobilized to profit on people’s fear and intentionally spread China-phobic sentiments,” a spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Israel said at a press briefing on Sunday. “And Israel is also a victim of this fake news.”The statements by the embassy were made only hours after both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Ya’acov Litzman informed the public that Israel is likely to soon see its first case of the virus.“We are almost certain that the virus will unfortunately arrive in Israel, and we are prepared to do everything that is necessary to take care of it,” Litzman said on Sunday.Is Israel doing everything it can to protect itself from the coronavirus? And what else can be done to prevent an outbreak?Eyal Leshem, director of the Center for Travel Medicine and Tropical Diseases at Sheba Medical Center, told The Jerusalem Post: “As long as the virus is contained mostly in China and other governments are able to contain local transmission, I don’t think Israelis have anything to worry about.”But if other populated, low-income countries cannot contain the virus, then it will be impossible to stop its spread to Israel as well, he said.“We cannot hold all global traffic, and then we will see the virus expanding with no effective vaccine and no proven effective drug treatment so far,” Leshem said.He said his impression is that the Health Ministry has taken all necessary steps to prevent the introduction of the coronavirus into Israel through travel restrictions on non-Israelis that have visited China over the past 14 days and by instructing Israelis who do enter the country after visiting China to stay home and avoid public places for two weeks.Leshem said Israelis who have been to China and develop a fever, cough or difficulty breathing should inform their local emergency room, traveling there by private car. Once the person reports, he or she will be put in isolation until appropriate tests can be run.He corroborated Netanyahu’s sentiments that Israel took precautionary steps even before the US and Europe.“It is clear the virus is highly transmittable, and this assumption is based on the rapid rate of spread of this infection in China,” Leshem told The Wall Street Journal. “When there is a public-health uncertainty, you always want to slightly overreact to make sure that you don’t miss a critical issue. Once you learn a little bit more about the risk and the effective steps, then you can scale back.”For now, he told the Post, he does not recommend scaling back. He said if any Israelis are considering not taking the necessary precautions, they should be worried.“Anybody planning a trip to Asia and the countries where the virus has broken out is taking a risk, if not a big one at this point,” Leshem said. “China is a huge country with over a billion people, and travel there is not advised.”Currently, there are no known cases of coronavirus in Israel, though dozens of people have been evaluated. Leshem said in most cases, those evaluated were diagnosed with influenza or a similar respiratory virus. He said the flu hits around 30% of all children and 10% of adults, and “it is not surprising to see Israelis return from China, get sick and need to be tested. It is also not surprising that they will test negative.”Leshem also said it is important to put the coronavirus into perspective. The World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a public-health emergency of international concern last week, something that it has only done in five prior situations since 2005, when it gained the power to do so.The first was in 2009 in response to the H1N1 swine flu. In 2014, it named the polio outbreak an emergency, followed by the Ebola and Zika viruses in 2016 and then Ebola again in 2019.But when determining how acute the threat of the virus actually is, one has to compare its threat to other similar respiratory viruses, such as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) or Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS).While the number of infectious cases in China surpassed the global total for SARS, Leshem said the infection killed 800 people of the 8,000 diagnosed, or 10% of all patients, after emerging in China in late 2002.MERS, on the other hand, is considered very lethal but less transmissible. While less than 3,000 cases have been diagnosed, more than 850 people in two dozen countries died of the disease.Influenza and measles are also respiratory viruses that are highly infections but globally less lethal.said too little is known about coronavirus, such as from what animal it likely originated or if there will be a treatment. Netanyahu said Israel is working toward a vaccination against the coronavirus, adding that he approved plans to establish a vaccine factory in the country, which Leshem said could prove fruitful.Until then, he said, travel restrictions and other warnings should be followed, despite the potential financial and other implications on the Chinese population.“The overall risk for Israelis of this virus is considered low, but people should stay updated,” Leshem said.
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