Israel Space Agency chairman: Lockdowns have zero impact, open economy at once

The head of Israel’s Space Agency says the closures should be lifted immediately.

By World Israel News Staff

In an analysis that flies in the face of actions taken by most countries and all the recommendations of Israel’s Health Ministry, Isaac Ben-Israel, chairman of the Israel Space Agency, said on Monday that lockdowns and curfews have no effect.

He said closures have no impact on the eight-week shelf life of COVID-19 and called for stopping them at once followed by a swift ramp-up of Israel’s economy.

“Therefore, I propose that we end the closures immediately after the current week. We will start increasing the workforce from 15 percent to fifty percent and in two weeks we will reach 100 percent,” he told Arutz7.

Ben-Israel, who holds a PhD in Philosophy and a BSc in Physics and Mathematics from Tel Aviv University, credited Prof. Ziegler of the Technion and Ronnie Yefarah for helping him reach his conclusion, the web site reports.

According to his findings, there is a clear trend in all countries where at the start of the epidemic, the rate of hospitalization increases rapidly on a day-by-day basis, then moderates and declines.

“The incidence of patients was greater by the day. This was during the first four weeks after the epidemic was discovered in Israel. As of the sixth week, the increase in the number of patients has been moderate, peaking in the sixth week at 700 patients per day.

“Since then it has been declining, and today there are only 300 new patients. In two weeks it will reach zero and there will be no more new patients,” Prof. Ben-Israel said.

This process occurred whether countries imposed closures or not, he said.

“This is how it is all over the world. Both in countries where they have taken closure steps like Italy and in countries that have not had closures, like Taiwan and Singapore,” Ben-Israel said.

“In such and such countries there is an increase until the fourth to sixth week, and immediately thereafter moderation until during the eighth week when it disappears.”

“It’s clear to us how the epidemic is starting and what is causing the increase. What is causing the moderation is unclear,” he said.

Ben-Israel said that hygienic practices put in place should continue, including wearing masks, avoiding large crowds and the like.

“What bothers me is the damage to the economy,” he said. “We are paying NIS 100 billion a month because of this closure. This also has implications for health. We will pay with more human lives with our health system in the current state.”

Israel currently has 11,868 active cases and a total of 118 fatalities.

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