Quaranta

What you didn’t know about “quarantine.” According to an an exhibit entitled “plague” at the Museum of Archeology in Herne, Germany, (https://www.youtube.com/user/LWLLandesmuseumHerne/videos ) In 1377, in the Venetian port of Ragusa (today Dubrovnik) the first specially designated isolated areas was introduced for sailors, passengers and goods coming from supposedly plague-contaminated areas.

These people and shipments were kept in isolation for quaranta (forty in Italian),  40 days. Quarantine, the name we use today, is derived from that Italian word. The exhibit also talks about Christian communities which pledged to build churches should the plague spare their towns and villages.

That plague was not terribly merciful. Within seven years the Black Plague caused the death of 25 million people. A third of the European population at that time. Not until the turn of the 20^th century did a scientist named Vladimir Haffkine develop a vaccine for the bubonic plague (Black Plague). He first tested the virus on himself. (See previous Jerusalem Magazine post or that on our Facebook page.)

Today, labs around the world are frantically seeking a vaccine to prevent the COVID-19, or a cure for the disease. With nearly two million people infected worldwide, and over 100,000 deaths, the race is on.

A team at Oxford University in Britain, lead by Prof. Sarah Gilbert, has encouraging results. “We are 80% confident our vaccine will work,” said Prof. Gilbert,who expects the vaccine to be ready for human trials in two weeks. “This is not a hunch,” said the professor.

A company in the USA, Moderna, is already conducting clinical trials for a vaccine.

Another company in the USA, Gilead, has been successfully using an Ebola drug called remdesevir and seen improvement in 36 patients over several weeks. In Israel the Migdal Galilee Research Institute has said their vaccine would be ready for testing in a few weeks. Another Israeli company, Pluristem, has treated 7 COVID-19 patients with its PLX cells. All the patients were on ventilators and suffering acute respiratory failure and inflammatory complications from the coronavirus. So far three have been weaned from the ventilators. Four of the seven show signs of improvement. Usually, over 80% of those on ventilators never recover.

Another hopeful sign comes from the company Inovio, based in Pennsylvania. Inovio is packaging a section of the Conovirus’ genetic code inside a piece of synthetic DNA, then those cells are injected into the patient as a vaccine. These cells produce a harmless protein that make protective immune anti-bodies that lay in wait for a real coronavirus. Kate Broderick, Inovio R&D chief said, “it's like giving the body an FBI wanted poster so it can recognize the enemy.” And then destroy it.

Meanwhile, the plague has not abated. A recent study showed that commuters in New York City is still standing shoulder to shoulder on the subways. NYC has cut down the frequency of the trains but apparently that only meant more people were stuffed together in whatever cars arrived. Some analysts say that with New York the epicenter of the virus in the USA a more aggressive approach should be used.

One pundit said that as US President Donald Trump is now criticized for his making light of the dangers of the virus, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who once agreed with Pres. Trump, may have seen the error of his ways. Johnson admitted he was near death after contracting the virus and profusely thanked the staff of St. Thomas's hospital in London for saving his life. The British government had downplayed the extent of his illness.

Greece has turned out to be a leader in the pandemic fight, according to Takis Pappas, a political scientist at Helsinki University. Pappas said that Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis closed down non-essential shops four days after the first case of the virus appeared, while Italy (pop. 60 million, 152,271 infected, 19,468 deaths) waited 18 days and Spain (pop. 47 million, 163,027 infected, 16,972 deaths) 30 days. In Greece, social distancing and the quarantine seem to be the most effective methods so far to contain the spread of the virus. Greece (pop. 10 million) has had only 2,081 cases of infection and 93 deaths.

Certain population groups seem harder hit than others. In Chicago, Black Americans account for more than 50% of those infected. In Illinois, 43% of the deaths are Black Americans.

In Israel, (pop. @9 million, 10,743 infected, 103 deaths) nearly half of the deaths are from the Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community. Israel has over 10,000 cases of infection. More than a quarter of the deaths are in Jerusalem, where 75% of those infected are from Haredi neighborhoods. There are over one million ultra-Orthodox citizens in Israel. Haredi women have an average of 7.1 children per household, according to a study by the Israel Democracy Institute. To exacerbate the COVID-19 situation, a recent study showed that one-third of the children in Israel under 9 years old was asymptomatic, carriers of the virus without symptoms of illness. Overcrowding at home and in the community spreads the virus. In the past decade, the percentage of ultra-Orthodox students grew by 141% compared to the general population. 114,000 ultra-Orthodox men attended yeshivas (religious seminaries for bachelors and married) in 2017.

Religious communities in Israel have banned public gatherings or limited them to 10 people in certain circumstances. In the Christian communities, even Easter Sunday was a fizzle compared to the usual elaborate festivities. The Church of the Holy Sepulchre was closed for the first time since 1349 during the Black Plague. On a normal Easter Sunday many thousands would appear for prayers.

Lockdowns were enacted in ultra-Orthodox towns to stop the spread of the virus. 15 neighborhoods in Jerusalem, where 75% of those infected were ultra-Orthodox, were sealed off. Some Jerusalem residents received text messages they were restricted to their neighborhoods. No one was allowed to leave their neighborhood unless to go shopping or to work or some essential task. Similar restrictions were imposed on other ultra-Orthodox towns around the country.

On Channel 12 news, video footage showed police raiding a synagogue in Mea Sharim where a large number of men had gathered and arrested two men. Each was fined 1,500 shekels. In Tel Aviv residents were to stay within 100 meters of their homes. Police gave out hundreds of fines to those breaking the rules.

As NY State (pop. 19.5 million, 181,144 infected, 8,627 deaths) has the unfortunate lead as the most heavily infected place anywhere in the world, there is room for optimism. Dr. Marc Lipsitch, a Harvard epidemiologist said, in an interview on USA Today that there may be more infections than we think. And that most may be protected by their immune response. “So, we’re closer to a herd immunity than we think.” He urges caution in the push to go back to work. “There are things we don’t know and things we haven’t tested in those kinds of back to work approaches.” He stresses that a combination of interventions be put in place that will they may suppress the economy they still don’t blunt the impact enough on our health care system.” He said the main push was the need for social distancing and testing. He stressed that, in order to build a complete data base to plan stategies for the battle, “ Testing is the key.”

On the Israeli political front: Blue and White chairman Gantz was denied an extension to form a coalition. President Rivlin has tasked the Knesset to chose a PM or call a fourth round of elections.