Head of financial think tank that ranked Israel safest country to be in for for coronavirus health safety presented ‘quite positive predictions that Israel may stay at the leading position.’
By Paul Shindman, World Israel News
When the think tank of a Hong Kong-based venture capital fund ranked Israel the top place in the world for coronavirus health safety, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took notice and proudly tweeted the good news Tuesday.
“Israel has been ranked first in the Covid-19 Health Safety Countries Ranking on the Deep Knowledge Group (@DeepTech_VC) website,” Netanyahu said, adding the graphic showing Israel ranked first followed by Singapore, Slovakia, New Zealand and Hong Kong.
The study by Deep Knowledge Ventures (DKV) looked at 200 data points for fifty countries to compare not just the infections, but what they said is a deep analysis including transparency, the state of the healthcare system, medical profession and hospitals, the mobilization of the military and the resilience and discipline of the population.
“The consideration of multiple parameters in a combination led our analysts to the conclusion that Israel currently shall be considered at the top of the safety ranking – a country safe to stay in during the pandemic,” said DKV founder Dmitry Kaminskiy.
Although the ranking is not constant and is recalculated daily as metrics change, he noted that Israel had unique qualities that gave it an advantage.
“To put it simply, the country is small, well developed and quite progressive in terms of the efficiency of healthcare system, and what is obvious – Israel historically is well trained and prepared to operate efficiently in the complicated circumstances and therefore to successfully surpass these hard times of the coronavirus challenge,” Kaminskiy told World Israel News.
Even though Israeli officials have predicted the economic and health crisis is expected to get worse before it gets better, DKG analysts noted differences that could keep Israel ahead of the curve.
“We have quite positive predictions that Israel may stay at the leading positions of this particular ranking, as it has significant predispositions to successfully neutralize pandemics and other types of disasters,” Kaminskiy said. While safe, Israel still ranked a respectable ninth place in coronavirus treatment efficiency.
DKG describes itself as a “smart” investment fund with a focus that includes biotechnology, artificial intelligence and big data analytical systems. The study takes publicly available data from sources like the World Health Organization, key universities and the CDC in America and compares parameters such as the levels of economic development and corruption, e-governance, artificial intelligence and digital medicine.
Although Israel’s healthcare system has reported it may encounter future shortages in some supplies, the Ministry of Health has utilized some of the latest technology to both inform the public and track the spread of the virus using top-secret anti-terrorism tools approved because of the crisis.
A DKV spokesman said the company had previously reported on other health topics, but since they had the resources and capabilities “we do feel that such type of analytics is essential now.”