The Israeli who never leaves Ben-Gurion Airport
Volunteer organ courier flies abroad and back without leaving terminal so as to avoid quarantine
WASHINGTON – Since the outbreak of COVID-19, many Israelis around the globe rushed to take the first flight home. But one, Mishel Zrian of Petah Tikva, took the opposite route.
Zrian, 47, has been volunteering for 20 years as an organ courier, and mostly transports bone marrow to patients across the globe: from Israel to patients abroad and vice versa.
Last month, when his employer told him he was about to be furloughed until the end of April, he decided to take this volunteering work to the next level and do it full time. Since then, he landed in Israel five times but never left the airport – to avoid a mandatory 14-day quarantine.
“I have an agreement with the Israel Airports Authority,” he told The Jerusalem Post. “I am allowed to stay at the lounge until I need to get back to carry the next bone marrow delivery. Sometimes, I can land in Israel from New York at 5 p.m., and by 10 be on a flight in the opposite direction.”
Traveling during the coronavirus pandemic can be challenging, he said.
“When I arrived in Miami with bone marrow, they told me I must go into 14 days of mandatory quarantine,” he said. “After discussions, they agreed to let me deliver it to the hospital, with the condition that I’d leave the state immediately after that. The next flight was to Phoenix, Arizona, and so I found myself on my way there just to spend the next few days until the next delivery.”
Another challenge has to do
with the fact that hotels and airports are operating in a limited form.
“It is hard to find an open restaurant when you are traveling. If I’m at the airport and I see an open place, I’d eat chicken at 10 a.m., because I don’t know when it will be the next time I get to eat,” Zrian said.
“In hotels, the situation is odd as well,” he continues. “Rooms are not always clean because of different guidelines regarding staff work, and if you need a towel or shampoo, you need to go down to the reception and ask for it. I have been in hotels with no breakfast or even coffee. It is not rare for me to travel 24 hours without eating,” he said.
But the main challenge, he said, is getting insured.
“I couldn’t find anyone who would allow me to buy an insurance policy for the US,” he said. “I am worried about the possibility that I’d get sick, and do my best to practice social distancing while traveling.”
Zrian said that despite all the challenges, he is determined to keep traveling because he knows that his work saves lives.
“The hardest part is to land in Israel without seeing my family. I have a wife and two children. Fortunately, they are supporting me.”
Bracha Zisser, founder and director of Ezer Mizion Bone Marrow Donor Registry and Collection Center, told the Post that before the coronavirus outbreak, hospitals around the world used to send a courier to pick up the bone marrow.
“But things got complicated in the past few weeks. It is hard to deliver the bone marrow and to allow couriers to enter the country. We are working with Royale – a courier company [with which Zrian is volunteering] and with El Al – that are helping us with no cost, in full volunteering,” she said. “They understand that it is about saving lives.”
Zisser also said that in March, Ezer Mizion was able to deliver 26 bone marrow donations: 14 to EU countries, 10 to the US, one to Argentina and one to Panama.
On Saturday, Zrian was about to take off from Newark to Israel, when his flight got canceled.
“I begged them to let me on the flight, that left to Israel as a cargo flight, but to no avail,” Zrian said.
Zisser said that since Zrian’s flight was canceled, Ezer Mizion sent through El Al the bone marrow he was supposed to pick up in Israel.
“They sent it to Belgium, and from Belgium to New York, where Zrian will pick it up and deliver it,” she said. • not enough.” As such, sick people – whether they have tested positive for the virus or not – would be isolated at all times.
Barzel and his research team simulated the spread of COVID-19 using the SEIR model, assuming that people carry lifelong immunity to a virus or other disease upon recovery. But for many diseases, the immunity after infection wanes over time, which would allow recovered individuals to return to a susceptible state.
“This model tracks the number of individuals as they transition between the different stages of the disease: susceptible (those available to contract the disease), exposed (those who are at their pre-symptomatic stage), infected (those who develop symptoms) and recovered (those who are already immune),” a release provided by the university explained.
Moreover, the researchers accounted for a fraction of defectors who continue to be active even during their lockdown phase, as well as exempt individuals, such as essential workers.
“In a perfect world, we could cure the disease in two weeks, but the world is not perfect,” Barzel said. “Some people take more than a week to show symptoms and some people don’t exactly abide by the rules. Our model allows for some people to take a week and a half to develop symptoms – and we miss those people, and they will go out and infect others.”
Even if around 15% violate their lockdown, “we will still kill the disease rather efficiently,” according to the model.
The best way to create these two groups, he said, is to work with local authorities who will divide up their constituencies by address. Then, entire buildings would be on lockdown or free to move about, also reducing infection, since residents of apartment complexes use the same elevators, staircases and more.
At the same time, whole families will be included in shifts, so that schools are open and children have school on the same weeks that their parents work. The government would have to inform businesses to operate at 50% and arrange their workers based on their pre-assigned shifts.
“For 90% this will be enough,” he said. “As long as school and work are aligned, then the only reason to break isolation would be if you really want to go to the shopping mall. Some people will do that.”
But he said that there is an option to use an app that would indicate if a person is supposed to be in or out of isolation. If the person is supposed to be on lockdown and he approaches the mall, the guard could check his or her app. If there is a green light he could enter. If red, he would be turned away.
Barzel said Israel can “take risks” as long as the number of people hospitalized and in need of intubation stays below 2,000. His plan keeps the country at an average of 1,600 people on ventilators, he said.
“We can achieve more if we also adopt responsible behavior,” he added, and therefore those not on lockdown would still be encouraged to wear masks and stay two meters apart from one another.
The team’s mathematical analysis and numerical results, including all their codes, was recently published on the arXiv open-access digital repository, and has gained traction.
Barzel and his team are working with the National Security Council and have presented the strategy to the academic committee advising the government. They were also contacted by international groups in the US advising 17 governments around the world. Barzel has consulted with officials in Italy and Brazil, too.
He told the Post that “there is a good chance” alternating lockdowns will be implemented as part of any exit strategy. •