More corona concerns

This evening I watched the prime minister, followed by the CEO of the Health Ministry emphasize the necessity for all senior citizens (of whom I am one) to remain at home in isolation. Our children and grandchildren are not permitted to visit us, supposedly, for our protection.

We are told that testing for the virus will be increased but we are not told how to obtain the testing if needed. No contact number is given for this, so called, vital service.

We are told not to go to the hospital, not to visit our doctor’s surgery and not to call Magen David Adom.

Perhaps it is a way of ensuring that we elderly citizens die quietly at home?

Devoid of a working government for over a year, our health service has gone into decline resulting in overstretched and understaffed hospitals.

My own GP said that the financial cost of one election could have produced a fully equipped and medically serviced hospital. The reality of three elections, with the possibility of a fourth, has contributed towards an untenable situation for our health service. BRENDA KATTEN

Netanya

Much is being written in The Jerusalem Post about the special circumstances surrounding the ultra-Orthodox” and the coronavirus (for example, “Police, Health Ministry in discussion with haredi leadership,” March 17).

It seems to me that there is another hidden danger that is escaping investigation by the health authorities. I refer to the lush beards sported by most of the haredim, and the huge fur hats. Are these not fertile grounds for the proliferation and long-term survival of the virus – especially the beards, so close to the mouth and eyes. In addition, I have been informed by a high-ranking health professional that such beards interfere with the protective effectiveness of masks. In the Gulf War, special protective gear was distributed to some of those sporting beards. Is it not time for the haredim to abandon the beards and hats, at least for the time being – or for the government to provide special protective face gear?

YIGAL HOROWITZ Beersheba

I am incensed by the complacent and patronizing tone of this letter written by the Chinese Ambassador to Israel (Chinese coronavirus commentary,” March 16).

“China is a responsible, rule-abiding and trustworthy country,” he writes. A responsible country does not hide a serious, life-threatening illness from the world and punish the whistleblower who alerted the world to this disease. A rule-abiding country does not arrest and torture citizens who do not agree with its worldview. A trustworthy country discloses a virus such as the coronavirus, and does not hide it for weeks on end.

How, in all honesty, can the ambassador write that China’s “purpose is to protect ourselves and the rest of the world.” Really? Selling arms to Iran? Don’t make me laugh.

China, according to the ambassador, is not afraid to tell the truth. As long as it’s not on What’s App, Google, or any of the other freedom of information sites of which China is so afraid.

And finally, it is sheer audacity for the ambassador to quote the Talmud, when China bans all religions, except the worship of communism.

SUSAN COHEN Tel Aviv

I strongly disagree with some op-eds that appeared in this newspaper over the last week. With rumors and fake news, they assume that China is hiding the information about the virus, and throw mud on the heroic achievement of the Chinese government and people.

There are different national conditions, and thus there are various approaches to cope with the disease. It’s meaningless to compare whose approach is better.

All we need are solid results. The Chinese government holds the health and safety of people as the first priority. The whole Chinese nation has made huge sacrifices to prevent the spread of the disease. Michael Levitt, an American-British-Israeli biophysicist and Noble laureate, believes that “China did great work and managed to gain complete control of the virus.” Indeed, the situation in China is improving, and it will only be a matter of time before we claim victory. This is the real fact on the ground.

The Chinese government has been open, transparent and responsible in information sharing. Confronted with a virus never seen in human history, China mapped out its genetic sequence within one week and immediately shared it, so that all the labs across the world can launch research.

Tracing the origin of the pathogen and mapping out its transmission routes call for experts’ opinions based on solid research. There is no need for finger-pointing, all we need is to let the science speak. We must not spread racism or stigmatization in this process.

It is useless to muddy the water or sow discord. Measures based on fear, rumors, racism and xenophobia will not save humanity. We need to work together and trust each other to win the battle against the virus.

WANG YONGJUN Spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy in Israel

Once again Israeli teachers have shown their usual dedication that we expect from them. After five days with the schools closed, they have decided to stop doing online lessons with no concern shown for the effect this may have on parents and children. This after discussions between their union and the Finance Ministry in which the main topic of discussion appears to have been how much money they get and their summer break. When everybody else is doing whatever it takes to get through this crisis, teaches appear to only be concerned by the possible reduction of their summer holidays and doing more work that they may not get paid for. A shameful example, indeed

STANLEY CANNING Kibbutz Kfar Hamaccabi

Regarding “Shtayyeh urges Palestinians to stop work” (March 17), thank you, Mr. Shtayyeh, for trying to protect Israelis from virus-carrying Palestinians.

Now would you please also urge knife-carrying and other armed Palestinian terrorists to stop working in Israel?

SAM ROSENBLUM Beit Shemesh

Regarding “First coronavirus death in Israel: An 88-year-old Holocaust survivor” (March 22), with great sadness we read about the passing of Mr. Aryeh Even, Z’l , the first fatal victim of the coronavirus in Israel.

The article mentions he was a Holocaust survivor from Hungary but fails to highlight that he was also one of the many people saved by Raoul Wallenberg, the heroic Swedish diplomat. After the murder of his parents in Budapest, Mr. Even found shelter in one of Wallenberg’s safe houses in the Hungarian capital. Together with tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews, he managed to survive WWII thanks to the courage of Wallenberg.

Ironically, Even was able to escape certain death in his youth but succumbed more than seven decades later because of this deadly virus.

The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation mourns the tragic passing of Mr Even and wishes a full and speedy recovery to those who had been affected by COVID-19. We hope that scientists will find a way to eradicate this scourge from the face of the earth, very much like Wallenberg was able to save so many lives in a different context.

EDUARDO EURNEKIAN – Chairman

BARUCH TENEMBAUM – Founder The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation

Amotz Asa-El is an astute writer, yet fails to face the facts of the origin of the coronavirus “What caused corona?” March 20). True, the coronavirus spread more quickly because of globalization, but it spread and originated from China for two reasons: 1) People that for cultural or superstitious reasons eat uncooked foods from a variety of animals and creatures are more likely to be vectors for bat-borne diseases, and 2) A culture that discourages criticism and a government that stifles it impedes information. One should note that SARS and MERS also originated from China.

In “Bernie Sanders: The King of Wishful Thinking in the Middle East” (March 19), Eric Bordenkircher astutely weighs out the perils of Sanders’s “proposed methods and statements” for “resolving” the “Israeli-Palestinian conflict.” The writer than goes on to state that the current impasse is a result of an “increasingly fractured Palestinian leadership,” as if to suggest that a peace agreement would be possible if only the Palestinian Authority (PA; Fatah) and the government of Gaza (Hamas) would just agree to cooperate. This argument ignores the evidence of Hamas’s militancy, stockpiling of weapons, and continued firing of them, and the PA’s payment to terrorists and their families, and the unwillingness of its leadership to ever say yes, even to negotiations.

Solutions to pandemics and to political conflicts cannot be found by burying our heads in the sand. BARRY LYNN

Efrat