Liberman warns Bennett 5th election will end his career
Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman threatened Yamina leader Naftali Bennett with political assassination on Tuesday if he enables Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to form a government or allows a fifth election in just over two years to be initiated.
“If we will be dragged to more elections by Bennett’s ego, Yamina will be destroyed,” he said at The Jerusalem Post Group Conference, which will be broadcast online on Thursday. “I think they have realized
Those people who may have contracted coronavirus before vaccination and developed symptomatic cases are now much more likely to be asymptomatic if they contract the virus at all. But it is still unclear if they can transmit the virus to someone else.
The latest studies in Israel are starting to reveal that people who were vaccinated have a reduced viral load – meaning that they are likely less infectious than someone who was not vaccinated and caught the disease – and are
therefore less likely to spread corona.
“The studies are starting to tell us that the vaccine does a good job in preventing transmission,” Yamin said. “However, we don’t know to what extent.”
Finally, the third reason is children.
To date, around 5.1 million Israelis have been vaccinated with at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine. But there is still a large, unvaccinated population in Israel.
Around 30% of the Israeli population is children under the age of 16 who are not eligible for vaccination. In some areas of the population, such as in the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community, the percentage is much higher – 50%.
Additionally, while more than 90% of people over the age of 50 have gotten the jab, there are still 250,000 more who have not been vaccinated. And about 800,000 eligible vaccinees between the ages of 16 and 50 have not been inoculated either.
“I would put a lot of effort into getting those people between the ages of 16 and 50 vaccinated,” said Prof. Daniel Cohen, a member of Israel’s Epidemic Treatment Team and the former head of Tel Aviv University’s School of Public Health. “But things will be much better when there is the possibility to start vaccinating kids under 16.”
Pfizer has completed enrollment for a clinical trial of children between the ages of 12 and 16 and the data are expected to be released over the summer.
As noted, experts believe that around 80% of the population would have to be vaccinated or recovered to achieve herd immunity, but this is just an estimate.
In the case of measles, around 90% to 95% of the population need to be vaccinated to have indirect protection, Cohen said. In contrast, in the case of other vaccine preventable diseases, such as diphtheria and polio, only about 80% of the population needs to be vaccinated.
It’s possible that in certain areas of the population, herd immunity has already started to appear, he said – such as in areas with less youth or greater vaccination rates – but that is different from achieving national herd immunity.
Yamin said that in the near future, the coronavirus should enter a state of “silent epidemic” meaning that there would not be massive infection and certainly less strain on the health system. This is especially so because the majority of children do not develop serious cases of COVID-19.
But he said that while the disease is still spreading, Israel should proactively test the population to catch asymptomatic cases before they spread, especially in areas where people could be at the highest risk, such as in senior living facilities.
“We should now put all of our efforts to protect those at high risk,” Yamin said.
Cohen added that while Israel is enjoying an exciting downward trend in morbidity
– only around 2.4% of people screened on Saturday tested positive – the population should still act with caution and continue to combine vaccination with other preventative steps, such as masks and social distancing where applicable.
“The data are very encouraging,” Cohen said, “but we still cannot speak about a significant herd immunity at this stage.” •