Letters
to the Editor, Jerusalem Post, December 20, 2021
Gone overboard?
Regarding “Has
Israel gone overboard fighting COVID-19?” (editorial, December 17), no, it
has not! It seems Jerusalem Post staff cannot grasp the concept of exponential
growth and what it means that Omicron in the UK has an R between 3 and 5
compared to Delta’s R, which is between 1.1 and 1.2.
Hospitalization lags two to three weeks
after infection so we do not know yet the actual severity of Omicron.
But even if Omicron were less severe than
Delta, Omicron’s transmissibility is much higher than Delta’s. Dr. Eric Topol described the
situation as such: “A key point here is that high transmissibility, which we
are clearly seeing, will get a lot more people infected. Even if a smaller
fraction do get severe illness, that’s still a lot more people very sick. That
also means more Long COVID, too, which can occur with mild cases and can be
quite disabling.”
The proof that Israel has not gone
overboard is the story in the Post itself: “One
family likely causes mass Omicron outbreak” (December 19).
MLADEN ANDRIJASEVIC
Beersheba
