Prof. Amos Pent, a molecular virology expert, explains the plague: "We should be more disturbed by the flu" • "The Chinese have the knowledge of the SARS war" • "The masks only contribute to the feeling"

• The mask only helps with feeling // Photo: IP

Continuing to deal with the Corona virus in China, and the phenomenon of discovering patients in western countries, have also raised concerns about the virus's appearance in Israel. Among other things, there has been a strong movement in recent days to buy face masks to protect against virus infection.

But "it is a completely unnecessary fear, and the masks can not prevent the virus at all. There is no mask that can do this," explains Amos Pent, a molecular virology expert at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in a conversation with "Israel Today". "First, I want to reassure and say that the current virus is weaker than its previous relative from two decades ago in China - the SARS virus.

Corona Panic: An isolated hospitalization facility has been established at Tel Hashomer Hospital // Photo: Paz Bar

"The death rate at that time was 30 percent of patients, and this time it was only about 2 percent. This is a very significant difference. Moreover, in the current administration of the Chinese government, reports of the virus coming out of China are a matter of months." In fact, Professor Pant says, in Israel, the concern should be much more than the seasonal flu disease rather than the corona virus.

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"The corona is a new outbreak, but temporarily, the flu comes to us every year and kills people. In other words, in the long run the amount of dead from the flu is much greater, and therefore the hysteria from the corona is incorrect, even though buying the masks contributes nothing beyond the wearer's inner feeling. I'm not even talking about the flu that attacked the world in 1918, the Spanish flu that killed 20 million people. That strain of flu can come back every year and attack with great intensity and do much more harm, "he says.

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Is there any capacity in the country to help with the Corona effort?

"In Israel there are very good virus research laboratories, but we are dealing with diseases and problems that are more relevant to the Middle East and we are more involved in the global effort against influenza. Corona can now also be investigated, but our budget blanket is very small. Only from my many years of experience, such preparations in the country, even in the case of budgeting, will take six months to a year.You need budgets, labs, the virus and so on.

Prof. Pent, however, notes that China is currently examining drugs currently being developed against the SARS for the Corona virus. "At the time, the Chinese were working strongly against the SARS, and were working to find a cure for it. So they eventually stopped the virus and prevented the spread of the disease, so they stopped the research. But there are the drugs, and now they are testing whether they are good against the corona. It's all done right now. "It's a family of viruses, so we have a chance and we'll wait to see. In any case, there's nothing to be pressed in the country. This virus will stop, and all the hysteria is unnecessary.