Israel readies boosters as COVID explodes

In recent years, I’ve developed a habit of popping off to Finland — the closest thing to Canada that is close to Israel — for a cottage holiday.

Everything about Finland is the most perfect antidote to summer in Tel Aviv: quiet, orderly, cool weather, an abundance of summer berries and freshwater lakes.

So, as departure day approached, and Delta numbers in Israel gained the wrong kind of momentum, I reverted to my obsessive COVID chart-watching persona I had dropped months ago. The rolling seven day average in early July was bumping up against the ceiling the Finns publicized as a red line. However, by the time we boarded our flight for Helsinki a few weeks later, Israel had blown through the upper limit for admission to Finland — of 25 newly infected individuals per 100,000 — exponentially. Both Israel and Finland were on a clear upward trajectory, which continues to this day.

What is more interesting, this time, is that like Israel, northern European countries seem to be working to manage COVID rather than panicking. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has been stridently clear and consistent in stating that the government will do everything possible to avoid imposing any further “lockdowns” that would close economic and general life. The health and economic costs of such shutdowns, as we all know, is enormous, compounding and not sustainable.

So, in light of the soaring numbers of infected, what is being done differently now?

Firstly, in spite of the data, those hospitalized or seriously ill are far fewer than in previous waves. So, that’s one good thing.

What seems to be driving the latest wave in Israel are two factors: Israeli public health officials, working in conjunction with Pfizer has determined that after six months or so, the effectiveness of the vaccine wanes. This has led health officials to launch an aggressive drive promoting booster shots, having administered the third dose to close to two million Israelis in two weeks.

Also driving the numbers are children, many of whom bring the virus home with them from summer holidays abroad. As expected, it spreads like wildfire.

But, this time there is no talk of closing schools or taping off playgrounds, the latter craziness not having recurred since the initial emergence of COVID almost two years ago. But, in order to access public recreation spaces — like pools and cinemas — any child over the age of three must provide results from a rapid test taken within 24 hours. One can imagine the parental fury unleashed when that little rule was dropped, with no notice, ten days ago. Day to day things can get a little messy and unclear but you’ve got to hand it to health officials. They are trying their darnedest to find ways to ensure that some iteration of “normal” life can continue.

That includes in-class attendance at schools and universities, which reopen on staggered schedules in September and October. Terms of attendance are being negotiated in real time, including the possibility of ongoing, daily testing of young children, until a more efficacious solution presents.

Yes. If one wishes to participate in public activities, like fitness centres, indoor dining and cultural events, then a “green pass” is required. And to get one of those a third vaccine shot — as soon as one is eligible (by age) — is mandatory. It is likely that for those unable or unwilling to comply that some sort of daily or opportunistic testing will become the “for now” solution. Anti-vaxxers are everywhere, as are those who, due to certain medical conditions, cannot receive the vaccine without dire consequences.

A week ago, I returned from my heavenly lakeside retreat in Finland, required to abide by rules that were not in place when I left. Within 72 hours before boarding the aircraft to Israel, we had to take a test which, to be honest, was a hassle. In rural Finland it took several hours of driving to a test centre and cost a pretty penny.

Upon landing in Israel, a wildly efficient system is in place to test all arrivals before leaving the airport, with results provided within 48 hours. Each arrival must self-isolate at home for seven days, at which time a second test is taken. Two positives post-arrival and you’re free to roam.

Enforcement of home isolation in Israel is strict, so only the truly stupid try to game the system. They’re out there, though, and when caught are slapped with a $2,000 fine. And, likely, more stringent supervision thereafter.

We will muddle through this in Israel, and hopefully serve as a case study in what may work, and what does not.

And as I carry on, and comply, I feel sick inside, thinking every moment about how fortunate so many of us are, so randomly, to have the luxury of moving about freely and receiving proper health care and necessities of life. I think, obsessively, about what has transpired in the past few weeks in Afghanistan, as my focus was on the petit bourgeois travails of a summer lake vacation in the midst of a COVID spike.

I cannot stop seeing parents passing babies and toddlers over walls topped with razor wire to the outstretched arms of American soldiers, knowing they may never hold their child again. I think of the incomprehensible desperation of that moment, and forever after, no matter the outcome. I think of how we complain of the discomfort of wearing masks, and all the women who will now be shrouded in stifling cloth, imprisoned indoors, a life of sheer madness.

And the savagery. Incomprehensible.

Which is all to say, that we really ought to find a way to buck up, develop some much-needed perspective and pragmatism, manage COVID intelligently and get at the issues of life that more urgently require our resources, thought and effort.