Most people we lost to COVID were already near death — Jerusalem hospital chief

Coronavirus ‘tipped over’ patients who would have died of other causes within year, says Shaare Zedek head Ofer Merin

By Nathan Jeffay 20 May 2020, 4:51 pm 2

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Chevra Kadisha workers wearing protective clothes, carry the body of Rabbi Avraham Heber who died from complications of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) infection, at the Shamgar Funeral Home in Jerusalem, on April 23, 2020. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

A hospital chief said most COVID-19 patients who died at his institution had around a year’s life expectancy.

“Coronavirus was the thing that tipped them over, but to be honest, for most of these patients who died here in Shaare Zedek, the chance is they had a year of life expectancy, not much more,” said Ofer Merin.

Around 1 in 10 Israelis who have died from coronavirus succumbed at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, where Merin is director-general. Almost all of the institution’s fatalities were both elderly and had other diseases, he told The Times of Israel.

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“Most of the patients who died would maybe be alive now, but coronavirus didn’t affect them in a different way than flu,” he said, drawing a parallel between COVID-19 and common influenza as diseases whose fatalities are mostly elderly people with preexisting conditions.

“We did not lose a single patient who was a healthy young person,” he commented.

Ofer Merin, director-general of the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

The current coronavirus death count in Israel is 278, and the Health Ministry has provided age profiles for the first 237 fatalities. There were two people in their thirties, three in their forties, seven in their fifties, and 23 in their sixties. The rest were aged 70 or older, and the average age of the entire group was 81.3. The data did not include details of preexisting conditions.

At Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan, chief medical officer Eyal Zimlichman also reported a high incidence of other illnesses in patients who have died from COVID-19.

“The vast majority had preexisting conditions, more than 95%,” he told The Times of Israel, adding that the average age of death in his hospital’s coronavirus wards has been 75 to 80. Zimlichman said he couldn’t estimate the life expectancy of patients who died.

The doctors’ comments come amid growing debate over whether Israel has handled the coronavirus crisis well, or overreacted.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced, when introducing coronavirus restrictions in March, that he was doing so to “save the lives of tens of thousands.” To some, like Moshe Bar Siman-Tov, who recently stepped down as director-general of the Health Ministry, the fact that the current death toll is much lower than feared reflects a successful strategy, while others including Yaakov Litzman, who was health minister until Sunday, claim otherwise. Litzman said in an interview on Sunday that “panic” in the government was “overblown.”

Israel, with its 278 fatalities, has 32 deaths per million citizens. Sweden’s 3,743 deaths puts it at 371 deaths per million people, and the UK, with its 35,341 deaths, has 521 per million.

‘A horror movie’ scenario for medical staff

As well as discussing morbidity, Merin spoke during his Times of Israel interview about his hospital’s general management of the pandemic.

“If you would want to try to script a horror movie for staff this is exactly the movie that you would script,” he said, with doctors encountering a disease they don’t know how to treat or cure, and which is highly contagious to medical workers

Medical staff working at a now-closed COVID-19 unit at the Shaarei Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, March 31, 2020. (Nati Shohat/FLASH90)

Merin is now breathing a sigh of relief after closing down most coronavirus wards due to lack of demand, shutting the special emergency room for infected people last weekend, and just receiving the results of serological testing that shows that only 3% of the 4,500 staff members caught the virus.

“This figure is a success, as it’s a contagious disease,” he said, adding: “Staff members had to work with patients who had COVID-19, and with this risk we expected a much higher level of infection.”

Illustrative: Shaare Zedek Medical team receives a coronavirus patient in Jerusalem on April 16, 2020. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)

The 3 percent statistic was calculated after conducting blood tests on a sample of one in nine staffers. The tests show whether people caught the virus at any point by checking whether they have the antibodies that people generate when infected.

With almost 10% of staff quarantined at some point, more than triple the proportion of staff who caught the virus, Merin said he concludes that isolation rules worked well to stop any significant transmission in the hospital.

He said that his hospital is getting ready for a possible second wave, possibly in the winter. He said that if the curve is not sharp, his hospital will cope, though a further spike could present challenges as as “the capacity of hospitals is full, especially in the wintertime in medical wards.”

Speaking generally about Israel’s hospitals, Merin said: “We don’t have much space, this is the truth. If we’re looking at countries like Japan, capacity is better.”

https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-people-we-lost-to-covid-were-already-near-death-jerusalem-hospital-chief/

COVID vaccination program in schools in Israel. Letter to school administrators.

COVID vaccination program in schools in Israel. Letter to school administrators.

This is a letter to school administrators that the school appears to have sent accidentally to parents. Translated here to English. Emphasis in bold from the translator. Side note, the letter says that religious leaders support the program. This is untrue. Some do and some don't. 

Hello everyone,

My name is Ari Hamanik, I manage the vaccination project in the educational institutions on behalf of the Beit Shemesh Municipality. For the benefit of those who were not at the zoom meeting this morning, here are the main points:

At the initiative of Mayor Dr. Aliza Bloch, the Beit Shemesh Municipality is launching a first-of-its-kind vaccination campaign in Israel that will vaccinate male and female students within educational institutions, with the backing of all relevant government ministries - health, education, defense and the Prime Minister's Office.

It is important to emphasize that the operation is taking place thanks to the encouragement and support of all the religious leaders of Israel - Lithuanians, Sephardim and Hasidim alike - for vaccinating young people aged 12-18. Attached is a flyer with the words of the great men of Israel, which you can pass on to your parents.

Also attached is a letter that you will send to the students 'parents with a basic explanation of the project, at the end of the letter there is an appendix that the parent returns signed with the student's name, ID number and parent' Before the medical staff, there is no need to attach an ID number.

You are asked to encourage, support and persuade the parents in every way possible to allow the children to be vaccinated, firstly to maintain their health, and secondly to allow a normal school routine even in the case of a child who is found to be verified.

The other stage in the project is a financial incentive that will be given to any director of an educational institution that meets the goals that will be set. The exact details will be given to you later, but in general it is a differential reward depending on meeting the pre-defined vaccination goals.

As mentioned, in the first stage you will contact the parents today to start the project, we will contact you and coordinate the arrival time of the vaccine mobile to the institution, and in God willing we will complete the task for the best.

If there is an institution that is interested and can start as early as next week, feel free to update me and we will coordinate it.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish you a successful start to the school year, in the hope that everything will go well and that we will be able to maintain as routine a routine as possible.

שלום לכולן,

שמי ארי המניק, אני מנהל את פרויקט החיסונים במוסדות החינוך מטעם עיריית בית שמש. לטובת אלו שלא היו הבוקר בפגישת הזום, להלן עיקרי הדברים:

ביוזמת ראש העיר ד"ר עליזה בלוך, עיריית בית שמש יוצאת במבצע חיסונים ראשון מסוגו בארץ שיחסן תלמידים ותלמידות בתוך מוסדות החינוך, כמובן בגיבוי של כל משרדי הממשלה הרלוונטיים - הבריאות, החינוך, הביטחון ומשרד רה"מ.

חשוב להדגיש שהמבצע מתקיים בזכות עידודם ותמיכתם של כל גדולי ישראל - הליטאים, הספרדים והחסידים כאחד - לחיסון צעירים בגילי 12-18. מצ"ב פלייר עם דבריהם של גדולי ישראל שאותו תוכלו להעביר להורים.

כמו כן, מצ"ב מכתב שאותו תשלחו להורי התלמידים ובו הסבר בסיסי על הפרויקט, בסופו של המכתב מופיע נספח שאותו ההורה מחזיר חתום עם שם התלמיד, מספר ת.ז וחתימת הורים. הזיהוי של הילד בשטח יתבצע באמצעות גורם מטעם בית הספר שיזהה את התלמידים בפני צוותי הרפואה, אין צורך לצרף ספח ת.ז.

הנכם מתבקשים לעודד, לתמוך ולשכנע בכל דרך אפשרית את ההורים לאפשר לילדים להתחסן, ראשית כדי לשמור על בריאותם, ושנית כדי לאפשר שגרת לימודים תקינה גם במקרה של ילד שמתגלה כמאומת ח"ו.

השלב הנוסף בפרויקט, הוא תמרוץ כספי שיקבל כל מנהל מוסד חינוכי שיעמוד ביעדים שיוגדרו. הפרטים המדויקים יועברו אליכם בהמשך, אבל באופן כללי מדובר על תגמול דיפרנציאלי בהתאם לעמידה ביעדי החיסון שיוגדרו מראש.

כאמור, בשלב הראשון תפנו כבר היום להורים בכדי להתחיל ולהניע את הפרויקט, אנחנו ניצור אתכם קשר ונתאם מועד הגעה של ניידת החיסונים למוסד, ובעז"ה נשלים את המשימה על הצד הטוב ביותר.

במידה ויש מוסד שמעוניין ויכול להתחיל כבר בתחילת השבוע הבא, מוזמנים לעדכן אותי ונתאם זאת.

בהזדמנות זו אאחל בהצלחה בפתיחת שנת הלימודים, בתקווה שהכל ילך כשורה ונוכל לשמור על שגרה ברוכה ככל הניתן.

Who is fact checking the fact checkers?

 

VIDEO: Doctor Takes Over Mic At School Board Meeting And Stuns Entire Room

Dr. Dan Stock of Indiana spoke before a school board, arguing against masks, green passes, and lockdowns. He gave good arguments, full of interesting facts. His words certainly deserve attention and an informed response. The video went viral as they say, but youtube removed it for violating terms of service. What is the term of service? That you have to agree with the CDC, which means you have to agree with the government. That my friend is tyranny. And the CDC has a revolving door with big pharma, so it's tyranny by corporations which don't get their power from even corrupt elections. It's fascism. 

The USA Today (and the other usual suspects) claims to debunk his claims but doesn't use any facts really. Just says, his words are full of misinformation. They just assert that. They don't show it. You can tell it isn't even the USA Today attempting the debunking. It's a hired service, probably with some medical school dropouts or flunky doctors. You can tell in part because they give him a little respect since he is an MD. They aren't going to totally dis one of their own. You can tell also because they use all the practiced tricks, like assertions of debunking without any argument or fact, vague cliched quotes from what seem like unimpeachable sources like Medical School deans who are the most corrupted people on earth, expressions of exasperation over "this type of misinformation," repeated use of the word misinformation, and of course personal attacks, such as saying that his archived web page calls for vitamins or that he may be an MD but he isn't board certified. I don't know why using vitamins is a criticism, but if you say it with derision people tend to go along with the derision. The one fact in the whole article was that the unvaxxed comprised 90 something percent of the 'cases' in Indiana. So we have this:

Dr. Harvey Risch of the Yale School of Medicine recently called out the CDC for widespread medical fraud in an interview with Fox New’s Laura Ingraham. The CDC modified the COVID-19 testing parameters for the wholly vaccinated, cutting the cycle threshold count of the PCR test ONLY for the vaccinated. According to Dr. Harvey Risch, “Some months ago, the CDC stopped counting breakthrough cases,” he explained, “the large numbers of cases in people who had been vaccinated.” “So, of course, those cases don’t register for the CDC’s counts, and so the great proportion [of cases] that they’re claiming are in unvaccinated people.”

If the USA Today article were balanced, they would mention this. The article is as full of misinformation as anything they claim to be debunking. As for the doctor's claim that he has treated people successfully with zinc and the like, the article says, this treatment has not been approved by the CDC. That's their refutation. End of subject. Again, it's all about the CDC. That's tyranny. That's Soviet Russia that the government decides everything. Meanwhile 1000s of doctors have talked about their success with the Zelenko protocol and over 50 studies say that hydroxochloroquine works. If the article were debunking in an informed way, it would mention these doctors and these studies.

The article talks about how the doctor sounds professional so you believe his misinformation. The same can be said for the article. It takes this journalistic tone but it is a hack job. It's not factual, not balanced. It's propaganda. 

So who's checking the checkers?

Why you can't trust Wikipedia

Isn't it relevant to know that a senior government official goes on to make millions as an executive in the corporations that he or she once was to supposed to regulate? The Clintons made $100 million making speeches in corporate America after they left office. That can be construed as retroactive bribery.

Similarly, Julie Gerberding went from head of the CDC where she made around $200,000 a year to Merck where she reportedly has been granted more than $20 million in stock. This needs to be publicized. Yet, if  you go to the Merck website and financial statements, they aren't talking about it. Additionally, Wikipedia doesn't talk about it. And if you add the information as I have, the mysterious editors remove it, as mysterious Wikipedia editors often do claiming that they don't accept your sources. It seems they only accept corporate media. So if you thought that Wikipedia was some kind of independent information source run by cool dudes you are wrong. I suspect that corporate and government employees sit on top of the pages that are relevant to them. 

It used to say this:

In late 2009, Gerberding became president of Merck's vaccines division.^[8]

I changed it to this:

In late 2009, Gerberding became president of Merck's vaccines division^[8] where she earns more than $2.5 million a year and has received at least $20 million in stock.^[9]

and my source was this:

 Cáceres, Marco (February 19, 2020). "Former CDC Director's Net Worth Estimated at $13.5 Million". thevaccinereaction.org. Retrieved 2020-02-20.

The mysterious editor reversed my changes and left this note:

05:22, 7 March 2020‎ TylerDurden8823 talk contribs‎  11,371 bytes -451‎  Undid revision 941740924  Poor source-you'll need a more reliable source f

Then I posted this:

In late 2009, Gerberding became president of Merck's vaccines division.^[8] According to form 4 SEC filings, between 2015 and 2020, Gerberding sold $23,968,010 in Merck stock.^[9] Since July of 2016, she has served on the board of directors at the Cerner Corporation (NASDAQ: CERN), a health care technology corporation.^[10] On July 17, 2020 she sold 36,285 units of CERN stock worth $2,902,800.^[11]

My source is this:

"Julie Gerberding Net Worth". Wallmine. July 20, 2020. Retrieved Aug 14, 2020.

Dr. Scott Atlas, MD, of the Hoover Institute of Stanford University on COVID-19

“But there’s a more fundamental point that I want to make sure have time to address and that is this idea that somehow has evolved that we must stop cases. That was never the policy, that should never be the policy when you have an infection that 99% of people have no problem with. It’s no big deal if low risk people get the infection. It’s really irrational to somehow keep apart healthy younger people, to insist that they should wear a mask, or that there should be some limit in restaurants. If you are high risk, you are high risk. But the most recent data shows that the infection fatality rate for people under 70 is 0.04%. That’s one-one hundredth of the original number. And what that means is for people under 70 years old your infection fatality rate is less than or equal to seasonal flu. If people want to shut down things because of that kind of risk then we better shut down all the schools and restaurants during November through April [every year] because that’s the flu season. The same risk people for this are at risk to die from the flu. And so there’s been a complete loss of common sense here. In Arizona specifically, yes, the cases are increasing, like they are in Texas, and Florida. It doesn’t matter if we see the following analysis which is that the vast majority of people are younger, healthier people. When we have more social mingling, we will get more infections. That’s obvious. There’ a contagious disease present. If we get more testing, we will see more infections. That’s obvious. But the point is that this is not nearly as deadly as what people thought. We see that the states that have more lax or more open policies, none of them are even in the top 15 of deaths per million. It’s the states with the lockdowns that are not the states – I mean Arizona ranks last I looked at 21st. Florida is something like 27^th. Texas is 40^th in deaths per million. Yes, there are more cases but there are not more virulent terrible results of those cases. We don’t see more and more ICU beds being used and I’m going to explain that in a second. We don’t see more deaths. We see decreasing deaths.  When we see what’s happening in the ICUs and the hospitalizations there’s another factor besides the fact that it’s younger, healthier people. We know from looking and speaking to the doctors and the hospital administrators that they are testing every person who comes in. And that means, let’s just say for example, a woman comes in to deliver a baby she’s tested for COVID-19, she’s positive, they categorize that as a hospitalization for COVID-19. I mean these are people that are asymptomatic. They are not hospitalized for COVID-19. They are hospitalized with COVID-19. And the same thing is going where the hospital needs to isolate people who they think are infected even if they are in for something else, OK, and so we isolate them, and some of them are isolated in ICU beds. So the numbers they have to be looked at more carefully. There’s no kneejerk response of fear. OK, there is a decreasing deaths per day. It doesn’t matter that young healthier people get the infection. In fact there’s a positive. Because we know the way to get immunity in the population is to have more people who are lower risk get the infection and become immune. That’s the whole point of giving vaccines to stop the pathways of the virus to the most risky people. That’s why we give widespread populations vaccines, for herd immunity. And the way naturally to get herd immunity is to have low risk people have the infection, they build up immunity, and eventually the pathways to the high-risk people are blocked. There’s nothing wrong with more cases. The only thing that counts is protecting the people who are going to die. By the way, we look at the hospitalization data, yes there are more cases, but even the people who are hospitalized, have much shorter length of stay. Those hospitalizations are not translating into very serious bad outcomes. So the panic here is again a manifestation of irrational people and irrational people in charge frankly. And it’s really a sad state of affairs to me, although it’s confusing, it’s sort of embarrassing in a sense to be among Americans who are so compliant, so acquiescent to irrational infringement on what their rights are.”  

Dr. Scott Atlas, MD on Drive in with The Morning Ritual with Garret Lewis, Friday, June 26, 2020. 6:18-11:21

https://knst.iheart.com/featured/garret-lewis/content/2020-06-26-garret-talks-to-dr-scott-atlas-about-covid-cases-masks-herd-immunity/

Scott W. Atlas, M.D. is the Robert Wesson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution of Stanford University and a Member of Hoover Institution’s Working Group on Health Care Policy.

Dr. Atlas investigates the impact of government and the private sector on access, quality, pricing, and innovation in health care and is a frequent policy advisor to government and industry leaders in these areas. During the 2008, 2012, and 2016 presidential campaigns, he was a Senior Advisor for Health Care to a number of candidates for President of the United States. He has also advised several members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives and testified to Congress on health care reform. His most recent book is entitled Restoring Quality Health Care: A Six‐Point Plan for Comprehensive Reform at Lower Cost (Hoover Press, 2016). Some of Dr. Atlas's previous health policy books include In Excellent Health: Setting the Record Straight on America’s Health Care System (Hoover Press, 2011), Reforming America’s Health Care System (Hoover Press, 2010), and Power to the Patient: Selected Health Care Issues and Policy Solutions (Hoover Press, 2005). Dr. Atlas had a Fulbright award to collaborate with academic leaders in China on structuring health care solutions for China, and also participated with leaders from government and academia on the World Bank’s Commission on Growth and Development. He has also advised leaders on health care and medical technology in several countries outside the US, including Latin America, Southeast Asia, and Europe. Dr. Atlas has published and been interviewed in a variety of media, including the Wall Street Journal, Forbes Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Fox News, London’s Financial Times, BBC Radio, The PBS News Hour, Bloomberg Radio, Brazil’s Correio Braziliense and Isto E, Italy’s Corriere della Sera, Argentina’s Diario La Nacion, and India’s The Hindu.

Dr. Atlas is also the editor of the leading textbook in the field, the best‐selling Magnetic Resonance Imaging of the Brain and Spine, now in its 5th edition and officially translated from English into Mandarin, Spanish, and Portuguese. He has been editor, associate editor, and a member of the boards of numerous scientific journals and national and international scientific societies over the past three decades. His medical research centered on advanced applications of new MRI technologies in neurologic diseases. While Professor of Radiology and Chief of Neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center from 1998 until 2012 and during his previous faculty positions, Dr. Atlas trained over 100 neuroradiology fellows, many of whom are now leaders in the field throughout the world.

He lectures on a variety of topics, most notably the role of government and the private sector in health care quality and access, global trends in health care innovation, and the key economic issues related to the future of technology‐based medical advances. In the private sector, Dr. Atlas is a frequent advisor to start‐up entrepreneurs and companies in the life sciences and medical technology.

Dr. Atlas has received numerous awards and honors in recognition of his leadership in the field. He is recognized internationally as a leader in both education and clinical research and had been on the Nominating Committee for the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology for several years. He has been named by his peers in The Best Doctors in America every year since its initial publication, as well as in regional listings, such as The Best Doctors in New York, Silicon Valley's Best Doctors, and other similar publications. He was honored to receive the 2011 Alumni Achievement Award, the highest career achievement honor for a distinguished alumnus from the University of Illinois in Urbana‐Champaign, his alma mater.

Dr. Atlas received a BS degree in biology from the University of Illinois in Urbana‐Champaign and an MD degree from the University of Chicago School of Medicine.

What killed him?

Boy gets flu shot, gets flu, gets Tamiflu flu medicine, appears to have negative reaction to it. Dies.

Excerpts:

"Niagara Falls turned orange on the night of Jan. 18 with spotlights the favorite color of an 11-year-old local boy who died from influenza A—despite having been in excellent health, getting a flu shot, and receiving prompt, best-of-the-best medical care."

"That Monday morning, he was clearly ill and his parents took him along with his younger sisters—aged 9 years and 3 months—to their longtime pediatrician. All three children tested positive for influenza A. The doctor prescribed Tamiflu, along with Gatorade and lots of water.

That Tuesday, Luca awoke with his face slightly swollen. His parents took him back to the doctor, who determined that he otherwise seemed fine and suggested it may have been an allergic reaction to the Tamiflu. He returned home and there still seemed no cause for worry as the father flew off on a work trip."

"At 1:44 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 11—a week after that basketball game when he had seemed exactly himself, six days after that uncharacteristic nap, and five days after he first was ill enough to be taken to a doctor—Luca was pronounced dead."

What killed him? Was it the flu, the flu vaccine which may have given him the flu, or Tamiflu?

Full article