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Did Israel loosen coronavirus restrictions too soon?
By Kent R. Kroeger (September 14, 2020)
If one were to pick a country best equipped to deal with the challenges of the coronavirus, one’s first choice might have been Israel.
This is a small-population country (8.9 million) that knows how to control the movement of people and commerce across and within its borders. In 2011, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Israel had approximately 500 roadblocks and checkpoints in the West Bank alone, not including the almost 500 “flying” (or “random”) roadblocks that exist at any given moment in time.
Israel also has a world-class, universal health care system — ranked 4th among 48 nations, according to a 2013 Bloomberg study in which the U.S. ranked near the bottom. Only Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan ranked higher than Israel.
On a indirect level, Israel ranks high among the advanced economies for its science and technological innovation — a quality that would, presumably, be of value during a pandemic in which the antagonizing pathogen is largely unfamiliar.
Israel should have been an exemplar during this health crisis — and early in the pandemic, the country was just that.
