COVID-19
11% of Israeli children who were infected with Covid-19 suffer from what is called ‘Long-Covid,’ according to a recent study by Israel’s Ministry of Health. 30% of those with ‘Long Covid’ suffer from cognitive, and mental health issues as well as continued illness, fatigue or breathlessness. However, the study points out those side-effects could have been caused by the lockdown, shutting everyone indoors, school closures and the recent war with Hamas in Gaza last May.
The study, reported in the TimesofIsrael, looked at 13,864 school children between the ages of 3-18, 11.2% reported symptoms of Covid-19. More than 200,000 children under 18 have tested positive in Israel and half of those were asymptomatic. A recent Yale University study showed that ‘Long Covid’ affects 10% of those aged 18-49 and 20% of those over 70.
Israeli children undergoing Covid-19 tests
According to the Israel Health Ministry, school aged children currently account for 56% of those who tested positive this past Sunday. There are presently 41,000 active cases among school-aged children, and 108,000 school aged children are in isolation.Children returning to school all had to undergo a C-19 test and researchers from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem say this inordinate testing probably accounted for the spike in number of cases recorded.
This, researchers say, is what accounted for when the daily infection rate over the weekend that reached over 10,000 while the R factor climbed back up to 1 after falling to .83 last week.
Dr. Eran Segal, a researcher at the Weizman Institute in Rehovot, and an advisor to the government on the pandemic, speaking on Israel radio’s Kan Reshet Bet, said he expects to see a slow-down in the number of cases in Israel during the month of September, crediting the vaccine campaign and the 3rd booster shot for helping slow down the 4th wave of the pandemic caused by the Delta variant.
Today, Israel’s Ministry of Health reported 7,781 cases, with 684 hospitalized, 247 in critical condition, 186 on ventilators, and 7,406 deaths. Covid-19 cases around the world, according to nCoV2019.live, show that 226,177,356 people have been confirmed with C-19, 4,654,317 have died, and there are 25,014,944 active cases. In the USA, there were 42,140,103 confirmed cases, 680,274 deaths, and 9,396,924 active cases. The USA is still number one in confirmed cases followed by India, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Russia, France, Turkey, Iran and Argentina among the top ten.
According to YnetNews, 61% of those testing positive in Israel were not vaccinated, 32% had received 2 shots, and 4% three shots. One health ministry expert said that after between 5-8 months the first and second vaccines lose their effectiveness and the booster shot is needed.
Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, head of public health at the Israel Ministry of Health, said that “Almost every Covid-19 patient on ventilators was unvaccinated and under the age of 60 as were 90% on the ECMO (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) machine.
Even though Israel has found the 3rd booster shot extremely effective in preventing serious illness, experts in the USA and Europe are still at odds over the necessity of the 3rd Booster shot. Some have questioned the Israeli findings. A report in the prestigious Lancet medical journal stated that “booster doses for the general population are not appropriate at this stage in the pandemic.”
However, the lead author of the Lancet report was Ana-Maria Henao-Restrepo, of the WHO (World Health Organization). The WHO has been very critical of “wealthy” nations administering a 3rd vaccine when there were many poorer countries who had not yet had their first shot. This report came out after a Pfizer executive recently stated that that pharmaceutical company is using Israel as their test laboratory for the C-19 vaccines. “Seems as if there’s a lot of politics involved in this WHO opinion, and perhaps even more than a bit of anti-Israel bias,” said one observer.
In Israel, with a population of just over 9 million, 6.5 million people have received one shot, 5.5 million 2 shots, and 2.8 million three shots. According to sources at Israel’s Minister of Health, those without a booster shot are 3x more likely to be sick and that those 60 plus who have received all three shots are 10X more protected than those who have not been vaccinated.Those over 60 who are unvaccinated are 40x more likely to get C-19.
Israel TV’s Channel 12 news reported that Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz was overheard saying, in a hot-mike recording at a discussion in a health committee meeting that, “people need to get vaccinated…otherwise…we will not get out of this (4th wave of the pandemic).”
One pundit said, “Not taking the vaccines is like going to a casino. You might win, but you will probably lose. So, take your chances, if you want, and hope for the best. But remember, the odds are against you.”.
NETANYAHU’S TRIAL
The trial of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for three felonies continued yesterday. The trial began in January and the Netanyahu legal team has been quite successful in a series of postponements. Baruch Kra, legal reporter on Channel 13 TV news, thought the ongoing postponements a disgrace, taking 9 months until now without even a real beginning of witness testimonies. Other observers say the trial could drag on for five years, not counting the appeal process that could add on another five to eight years. Meanwhile Netanyahu, head of the Likud party, leads the opposition to the Bennet/Lapid coalition in Israel’s Knesset.
Haim Garon, 69, and his wife Esti, 69, were killed yesterday when Garon’s small plane, a single-engine Cessna 172, considered a safe and reliable aircraft, crashed on the way from Haifa just one mile from the Greek island of Samos where the plane was to land and refuel on the way to Northern Greece. CNN reported that evidence seemed to suggest a technical fault with the engine. Israel radio reported that Garon had delayed take-off from Haifa but the reason was not immediately available. Garon, who was a prosecution witness, but not a key witness, in the Netanyahu trial, had been a deputy director of the Communications Ministry while Netanyahu was Prime Minister.
Case 4,000, where Garon was to have been a witness against Netanyahu, accuses Netanyahu of making a deal with Bezeq owner Shaul Elovitch, also on trial, for passing regulations financially favorable to Elovitch in exchange for Elovitch providing positive coverage of Netanyahu in the popular website Ynetnews, and his other media outlets.
In a side issue, according to the Globes news site, a Tel Aviv District Court dismissed Netanyahu’s son Yair’s petition for a stay of execution of the award of 250,000 shekels in damages for libel against an Avi Alkalay, an Israeli reporter. Netanyahu claimed in a social media post that Alkalay was appointed to his job at the Walla news site in order to report negatively on then Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu has pleaded with the judge to reduce the fine since he was didn’t have the funds to pay the fine. However, Alkalay’s lawyers showed evidence that the young man had nearly a million shekels in liquid assets. According to media reports, the Netanyahus have a reputation for not paying if they can get around it, or if they can get someone else to pay.
PRISON BREAK
Six Palestinian security prisoners escaped from the Gilboa high security prison last week. Reportedly, they dug a tunnel from their cell using the drain under their shower stall. A massive manhunt was launched and within days four were captured, tired and hungry, hiding in a field in the Galilee. After capture, one of the prisoners said the six had made arrangements with a contact to meet them with a car, clothing and false identity papers, but the contact never arrived at the agreed upon location. Two of the prisoners are still at large. Police Minister Omer Bar-Lev has said that “sooner or later we will lay our hands on them.” While there was a fear that the six, all convicted as terrorists, might try to launch an attack within Israel, the four captured said they had no plans to do so. However, the two still at large are considered a risk, and there is a concern that they might launch some sort of attack.
While the manhunt went on protests broke out around the West Bank and in East Jerusalem. Hundreds of rioters, reportedly encouraged by Hamas in Gaza, threw rocks and Molotov cocktails at Israeli police. Observers say that the prisoners’ escape and capture spurred other violence. Two terrorist attacks took place within the last five days. One when Basil Shawamra, a 17-year-old Palestinian with a knife attacked two yeshiva students at a pharmacy in Jerusalem’s central bus station. The students were moderately injured. The attacker was shot by police on the scene and is in serious condition at Jerusalem’s Share Tzedek hospital. Police said Shawamra did not have a l work permit and was unauthorized to enter Israel legally.
Another Palestinian attempted to attack soldiers with a screwdriver at the Gush Etzion checkpoint on the West Bank. The man was shot in the hand by soldiers at the scene and taken to the hospital in Jerusalem. Palestinian prisoners have called for a hunger strike this Friday in sympathy with the prisoners still at large, and those who were captured. Police Minister Bar-Lev said he wasn’t worried about the hunger strike. “We have two or three hunger strikes a week.”
The government has called for an investigation in the circumstances around the escape. Critics, like right-wing Knesset Member Betzalel Shmotrich, have lambasted the prison authority for lax practices and indulging Palestinian prisoners, like tacitly allowing them to have forbidden mobile phones, conditions that resulted in the the escape. The exit of the tunnel was not far from a watchtower but it turned out that the guard was watching television rather than the monitors trained on the prison perimeter. The prison authority did not have the prison’s phone jamming equipment turned on.
The government ordered all the shower stalls and all the cells examined in a move to prevent any other escapes. A previous escape was carried out by prisoners digging a tunnel using the drainage canal of the toilet. The prison authority sealed up the weak point of those drainage canals with steel plates to prevent another escape using that method but the authority did not make a similar correction to the showers.
GAZA
Hamas fired rockets at Israel three nights in a row last weekend. This is the fourth Hamas rocket attack from Gaza since the ceasefire last May. All the rockets were intercepted by Iron Dome missiles. Israel responded with attacks on Hamas positions in Gaza.
Residents of Sderot, who had to flee to bomb shelters each night when the sirens sounded, complained that they were not “Second class citizens, but Israelis just as those in Tel Aviv and deserved the same protection.” Aviv Kohavi, Israel’s Army Chief of Staff, has warned Hamas that “Israel will not accept any violation of sovereignty. .. If the situation escalates, Hamas and the Gaza Strip will pay a heavy price.
Meanwhile, Israel has approved the transfer of funds from Qatar to pay for salaries of the Hamas government in Gaza and $100 cash payments for 100,000 poor Gazan families. Israel has objected to allowing Hamas any payments until Hamas releases the bodies of Israeli soldiers killed ruing the Gaza War in 2006. Israel does not want Hamas to receive the millions of dollars in cash which Israel claims Hamas uses to build attack tunnels and buy arms and ammunition with which to attack Israel. However, Israel is allowing the funds to be transferred under a deal reached with the UN where the money will go to the Palestinian Authority who will be in charge of paying the salaries.
TECHNOLOGY
The Israeli American company Eviation, based in Seattle, has announced a deal with DHL, the giant delivery service, for 12 airplanes powered by electric engines to be used for hauling DHL’s cargo. Eviation’s Israeli founder and CEO Omer Bar-Yohay says this is a “new age of aviation.” Bar-Yohay said he has orders for 150 planes from private airlines who plan to use the plane in short flights from say San Jose to San Diego. The plane, now called the Alice, has a payload of 2,500 pounds (1.1 tons), can be fitted to carry 9 passengers, and has a range of 440 nautical miles (815 kilometers), According to Eviation, the plane takes 30-minutes to receive a full battery recharge and be ready to fly again.
Eviation recently sold a 70% share of the company to a Singapore-based conglomerate the Clermont Group that supplies Eviation with the two Magni 650 electric motors used in the Alice.
DIPLOMACY
Bahrain’s first ever envoy, Khaled Yousif Al-Jalahma, has presented his official credentials to Israel’s President Isaac Herzog. This takes place approximately one year after the signing of the historic Abraham Accords, when the UAE (United Arab Emirates) and Bahrain normalized relations with Israel. The UAE will reportedly begin regularly scheduled flights to Israel once the pandemic has receded.
