The More Israel Doubled Down on COVID, the Worse Things Got
“Our tolerance for people who do not get vaccinated has run out,” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett stated Sunday, exasperated that his vaccination strategy—arguably the most aggressive in the world—has failed to curb the Delta variant coursing through the country.
Instead of defeating the virus, as he had been promising for weeks in pushing a third COVID shot on Israelis, the number of Israelis at peril climbed steadily: 246 on Sunday were deemed critically ill, 178 of them on ventilators; a week earlier the numbers were 206 and 157, and two weeks earlier 203 and 153. About 400 Israelis died in the last two weeks, up from about 300 in the previous two weeks.
The happy talk from some Israeli medical experts earlier this month, when they expressed optimism the worst was over, is gone, replaced by dire reports of hospitals being swamped, staff in a state of post-trauma panic, and patients needing care instead hurriedly sent home—a situation deemed “catastrophic” in early September by Dr. Amir Neuberger, the director of the Rambam Health Care Campus’s coronavirus ward.
The head of Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer’s Infectious Disease Unit, professor Galia Rahav, last week echoed that view, saying “the morbidity from coronavirus here is insufferable. … Patients who weren’t given a chance to live die because there aren’t enough beds and ICU staff. I see this at a lot of hospitals. It’s heartbreaking.”
The government’s response to the failure of its policies, in this, its fourth wave, is to blame the relatively few who remain unvaccinated and to double down on more vaccinations. Three shots are becoming mandatory to qualify for vaccine passports, and a fourth is on its way, in anticipation of future waves.
There’s a logic to accelerating the rate of vaccinations, just as there was a logic to Israel’s strict lockdowns and other measures to stop the spread of the virus—vaccines do seem to have a short-term benefit in reducing serious hospitalizations and deaths. A study (pdf) that Israel trumpeted last month shows that, after at least 12 days, those who received the third dose had 10 times the protection of those who only had two shots.
But the ongoing benefit is less clear since the vaccines wane, rendering them ineffective after five to six months, as seen in Delta’s success at felling Israelis. There’s also fear that the vaccine may prove all-but worthless against new virus mutations—the Israeli Defence Forces’ Military Intelligence Directorate warned as early as January that mass vaccinations during a pandemic could lead to such a mutation entering Israel, and many fear that the South African C.1.2 variant will prove it right.
The government’s response is to improve detection of viruses at Israel’s Ben Gurion International airport, in the faint hope that future viruses won’t be able to penetrate Israel’s porous borders, and attack defenseless residents.
Israel does have a COVID success story, which ironically occurred where its government most failed to implement its policies. Unlike most of the Israeli population, its ultra-Orthodox largely shunned lockdowns and vaccination early on, leading to a high rate of natural infection, followed by natural immunity and long-lived protection (pdf).
The ultra-Orthodox represented 4 percent of Delta cases, according to Israeli Health Ministry data in August. Overall, Israelis with natural immunity represent 1 percent or less of Delta cases.
The same phenomenon of acquiring natural immunity appears to also apply to Sweden, which adopted policies diametrically opposed to those of Israel—no lockdowns to speak of, no shut down of the economy, few restrictions of any kind.
As a result, Sweden’s population is believed to have acquired an early herd immunity, before the vaccinations became widely available, leading to only a modest hit to its economy, manageable loads at its hospitals—Sweden’s hospital system never exceeded its capacity—and, since June, an average of less than one COVID death per day.
Sweden is now removing its few remaining restrictions and its naturally immune population may be well positioned to weather future coronaviruses, in the same way it weathered Delta. Israel, in contrast, is besieged, unsure of when its fourth wave will subside or how well it will weather the waves to come.
Not long ago, after Israel vaccinated a large proportion of its population and before the vaccines had the opportunity to wane, Israel was everyone’s model of how to tackle COVID. As the world learns more of Israel’s vulnerability, it may provide a cautionary tale of allowing short-sighted expediency to trump far-sighted policies.
See more here: theepochtimes.com
Header image: Jalaa Marey/AFP via Getty Images
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very old white guy
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Taking shots that make a disease worse could just be the problem. I wonder, is anyone looking into that or are they just running around screaming for more of the same?
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DataJunkie
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Fact: Covid has never been isolated in a lab; that makes every subsequent event a LIE. Keep reading beyond any headline declaring isolation and until you get to the sentence admitting they had no sample or it was a conjecture or it was computer generated and so on. A European gentleman offered over one million dollars to anyone who had or could isolate; and therefore purify, reproduce and be able to create a test for so-called Covid-19. He’s had no takers.
Ergo, it is impossible to prove C-19 even exists. Without isolation, there can be NO test for it much less a “vaccine”.
Scientist Kari Mullis created the PCR as a research tool for scientists who were doing DNA/RNA research. The PCR, according to Mullis “cannot diagnose any infection, cannot differentiate between live and neutralized virus and cannot be used as a diagnostic test”.
Are we to believe all the “experts” and “authorities” were unaware? Seriously? Do a search of Anthony Fauci related to HIV/AIDS (wherein one doctor referred to Fauci as a “mass murdering sociopath”; see “Deadly Deception HIV/AIDS”); same MO, same hysterical Globalist media creating panic and fear within a medically illiterate general population. That was part of the run up to the Covid propaganda narrative and the creation of a mass psychosis to propel people to stand in line and pay to be euthanized.
There is zero evidence C-19 exists, there is no test for it and there is no “Delta variant”. That’s the propaganda name for the adverse effects of being injected with a deadly bio-weapon; death can occur immediately or in slow motion depending on the ingredients in a wide variety of possibilities. If everyone dropped dead immediately, people would catch on faster.
Cleverly, doctors/pharmacists have discovered a percentage of the fake “vaccine” serums are nothing more than saline. That’s what they use when politicians publicly video their “Covid injections”.
None of this has anything to do with protecting the health of humanity.
Isolation is psychological torture, mask wearing causes, in addition to numerous and potentially lethal illness, also leads to permanent brain damage from re-breathing your own exhaust and forcing masks and isolation upon children is child abuse.
Even the fake “tests”; especially the deep nasal swab, are damaging and dangerous. Observing this done to children is gut wrenching.
Will people figure out this murderous program of genocide? Your guess is as good as mine but it does appear the Covid narrative is falling apart. Godspeed.
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MC
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Well said, brother. We hear you. Patience. We will not go silently into the night.
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Control Rat
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Definition of insanity: Doing the same procedure over and over again and expecting a different result
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Geraint Hughes
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Being vaccinated increases the risk of you carrying a virus which is more dangerous to others around you, because the vaccine masks the symptoms of the stronger virus for longer. This is probably the reason why the Delta variant is taking off, as being vacinnated enables it to have the environmental conditions to survive for longer and spread to more people. Whereas previously it would not have been able to.
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Alan
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My understanding is that the Delta variant is more infectious but not as virulent. This is how respiratory viruses behave when they mutate. One expert said this morning that by next Spring covid will be like a common cold. I only know two people who have had it and I have had worse colds, but covid seems to make people exaggerate the illness.
There is nothing in this article to indicate that anybody understands the situation, and therefore they don’t know what to do about it.
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very old white guy
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Are they ever going to stop believing the lie that is covid? Everything that has been done has advanced the virus. With a median fatality rate of 0.26 the only thing needed was to look after those who were ill, nothing more. Now the plan to destroy countries and people is in full swing with mass insanity and literally a fascist tyranny gripping many countries. The not vaccines are proving to be just what many said they are a population control vehicle.
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troverman
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Picture this…a group of people are on a boat slowly sailing towards land after the engine quit. Under the hot sun, the group begins to become very thirsty. The captain of the boat tells them in order to quench their thirst, they must drink sea water. Most of the group does as they are told, and at first the sea water cools them and makes them less thirsty. However, very quickly the salt in the water makes them even thirstier than before. The captain tells them the solution is to drink even more sea water, which they do. At this point, they are far thirstier than the few who did not drink the sea water. Panicked, they ask the captain what to do as their thirst is worse than ever, and he tells them they must drink the sea water a third time. He also orders those who have not drank any sea water to drink of it, saying it is the only way to survive, despite the shoreline being in sight. This, my friends, is the story of Covid-19.
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Anapat
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Excellent !
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MC
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I second that!
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Tom
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Insane…the rush to inject an entire country with completely untested mRNA injections that have had no long term trials. Almost 75% of Israel has had the injections and you can bet that of the remaining non-injected people most of them now have natural immunity. In effect, there should be NO new cases of any covid according to the lies told by big pharma that their products are safe and effective…right? Just the opposite is occurring, so why trust anything big pharma says?
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