A novel coronavirus, whose origins were likely traced to a wet market in Wuhan, China, has shaken the world in 2020: lockdowns, quarantines, social distancing, mask-wearing, exponential growth, morbidity rates, PCR testing, etc., have entered our lexicon and influenced our lives -- terms, which most of us had never even heard before.

And while governments’ reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic have largely been similar throughout the Western world, some argue that the response has been disproportionate to the level of threat posed.

In Israel, a group of scientists and physicians have formed the Common Sense Model, which calls to terminate the universal restrictions on society and move toward a focused protection plan of at-risk populations instead.

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Common Sense Model

The alternative model aims to breach what has become a wall-to-wall consensus of government non-pharmaceutical interventions. It was conceived by three Tel Aviv University faculty members: Profs Udi Kimron, Ariel Munitz, and Motti Gerlic; and now has the backing of 148 scientists and physicians.

Similar in essence to the US-based Great Barrington Declaration (signed by more than 50,000 scientists and medical practitioners to date), the Israeli model calls to handle the coronavirus pandemic in a rights-respecting approach that cuts back government's coercive measures to the bare minimum.

The plan advocates a shift of focus to the protection and care of at-risk groups, rather than impose collective restrictions that aim to curb infections in society altogether. In other words, letting people go about their own business freely -- despite the global pandemic claiming the lives of 1.79 million people as of December 31.

Last week, in what may be the harshest criticism yet penned, more than 100 Israeli physicians signed a letter excoriating the government’s policies employed to combat the coronavirus.

“We, male and female physicians in Israel, strongly object to the coercive measures against the spread of the coronavirus, including lockdown, curfews, closure of the education system, digital surveillance and movement restrictions,” the letter stated, published first by broadcaster Channel 12.

“The coercive measures now deliberated constitute a destructive infringement of fundamental civil rights, and their enforcement lacks medical justification with a black flag raised above them.”

A week later the Jewish state entered its third national lockdown, which was initially poised to last two weeks but could extend beyond that time frame, Israel's pandemic czar Prof Nachman Ash told Army Radio last week.

Read more at i24