(Latest update: January 3, 2021)
According to the most current figures available for Israel, the total number of recorded cases of covid in Israel is 419,312. This covers the period March, 2020 (when covid first came to Israel) and December 30, 2020 (the latest date data was available for this essay).
This number means that Israel's Health authorities have told us that there have been in Israel a total 419,312 people who have tested positive for covid-19, or Coronavirus. Of those 419,312 covid-positive Israelis, a total of 3,314 have died.
Do some math. Divide the total number of those who have died by the total number of Israelis who have tested positive (3,314/419,312). That yields a number: .007903. This number is just under 8 tenths of one percent. That's the mortality rate for covid in Israel.
A survival rate is different. A survival rate tells us how many people with covid are still alive. Therefore, if approximately 8 tenths of one percent have died, then we can assume that the remaining 99.2 percent of covid-positive Israelis have survived.
That's right. After nine months of panic, confusion and anger, Israel's covid survival rate is app. 99.2%. This 99.2% survival rate is for all ages and all demographics. Literally 99.2 percent of everyone in Israel who has tested positive for covid-19 since inception, has lived.
That's how dangerous covid is in Israel. Nevertheless, covid is still considered to be extremely dangerous--so dangerous that our tiny nation has begun its third lockdown to fight covid. Apparently, a 99.2% survival rate just isn't good enough to keep us not locked down..
To understand exactly what this 99.2% survival rate for covid means, think for a moment about the survival rate for men with lung cancer in Israel. Only 33% of men in Israel diagnosed with lung cancer survive (here).
In a report dated, May 31, 2020, the Israel Cancer Association reported that "about 80,000 Israelis have died from the harmful effect of smoking" (here) over the past decade. That adds up to about 8,000 (mostly) lung cancer deaths a year.
By March 2021--the end of one year of covid--will covid also have killed 8,000 Israelis? Well, right now, the end of nine months of covid, there are only 3,314 deaths. For covid to kill 8,000 by March, 2021, Israel would have to see more covid deaths in the next three months (4,686) than in the first nine months combined. Since Israel is now aggressively inoculating its population, that doesn't seem likely.
This is an important observation, especially when you attempt to compare how Israel reacts to both diseases--covid and lung cancer. For covid, we panic. We fine violators. We shut down Israel's economy. We force lockdowns.
By contrast, we do almost nothing to stop lung cancer. How can Israel stop or slow lung cancer? According to at least one opinion, the leading risk factor of lung cancer in Israel is smoking. What does Israel do to protect Israelis from smoking death? Close to nothing.
Specifically, is smoking banned in Israel? No. Are smokers arrested? No. Are people caught congregating in groups to smoke fined? No.
Are smokers prohibited from going to work? No. Are smokers quarantined until a blood test shows no nicotine in their bloodstream? No.
Why not? Israelis are banned, prohibited and otherwise limited and locked down in order to stop a contagious disease (covid). Why aren't Israelis prohibited, banned or limited from smoking with similar prohibitions in order to stop a smoking disease--especially one that will probably kill more people in one year than covid?
There are other inconsistencies with our treatment of covid. Look at the economic dislocation we have suffered. So far, 3,314 Israelis had died from covid. That means that the lives of 3,314 families have been devastated. Those losses are tragic.
But the covid tragedy goes beyond physical death. For example, so far this year, some 40,000 businesses have been forced to close (here). That means that the lives of as many as (at least) 100,000 Israeli business owners' families have been shattered by covid, if one includes spouses and children. Those losses are also tragic.
Who has weighed the tragedies of 3,314 shattered families with/against up to 100,000 shattered family lives? The price Israel pays to fight covid with lockdowns is the price of 100,000 people losing their livelihoods.
Who determined that the attempt to save lives required the loss of up to 40,000 family businesses in 2020 and perhaps another 60,000 in 2021 (ibid)? Does anyone in the government care about these losses?
Covid's lockdown tragedy doesn't end with shuttered businesses. On top of the business losses, there are losses attributable to depression and suicide: since March, 2020, Israel has seen "unprecedented levels of suicide calls" to crisis hotlines (here). So far (through November 5, the latest date available), Israel has seen as many as 13 suicides in a single 11-day period--and 252 suicide attempts in the same period (ibid). This is horrific.
How many suicides will covid's lockdowns and business losses provoke? How many families of failed business owners will suffer the trauma of increased family abuse brought on by covid-created fear, worry--and the frustration of being unable to feed and house one's family?
The impact of covid gets worse: between March, 2020, when Israel's first covid death occurred, and November 2020, the latest date for stats, women in Israel seeking shelter from domestic abuse soared by 350% (here). Has anyone included these tragedies into the calculus used to determine a lockdown?
Israel has a 99.2% survival rate. Therefore, we lock down because.....? We force the shuttering of thousands of small family businesses, driving many out of business forever because.....? We force an unprecedented number of women into shelters to escape abuse provoked by lockdowns because.....?
Remember, doctors are not at all convinced that lockdowns do more good than harm; in fact, according to some, lockdowns do more harm than good (here). In the face of such uncertainty, why embrace the known harms done by locking us down?
We don't even know if the razzle-dazzle-new-science of our inoculations will actually work (here). All we know for certain is that, in Israel, covid has a 99.2+% survival rate. Doesn't such a survival rate suggest anything to anyone?
Certainly, lockdowns might be necessary. There might well be good reasons for a lockdown. But where are those reasons? Have you seen any?
At least one politician in Israel has already said the lockdowns are political, not medical. Because none of us has been shown the medical data to support any lockdown, his accusation goes unanswered. Yes, he could be wrong. But then, absent data, he could be correct.
Where is the data to support the lockdown? Why haven't we seen it? Does it exist?
This latest lockdown in Israel, begun Sunday, Dec 27, 2020, is scheduled to cost Israel between 2.5-3 billion shekel a week (here). Israel risks immense economic damage to do what--to protect us against a disease that has a 99.2% survival rate?
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