Trump Says U.S. Will Run 5 Million Daily Virus Tests 'Very Soon.' His Testing Chief Says That's Impossible

https://time.com/5828843/trump-coronavirus-testing-giroir/

President Donald Trump declared Tuesday that the U.S. will be able to carry out five million coronavirus tests per day, but the top official overseeing testing strategy told TIME earlier in the day that goal wasn’t feasible given current technology.

Admiral Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary of health who is in charge of the government’s testing response, said during an interview on Tuesday morning that “there is absolutely no way on Earth, on this planet or any other planet, that we can do 20 million tests a day, or even five million tests a day.”

Since the beginning of the year, the Administration has conducted 5.7 million tests in total, he said. And while the government has made strides in increasing the number of tests being performed in recent months, the White House’s new “blueprint” for testing, rolled out on Monday, currently plans to double current COVID-19 testing. Giroir plans to hit 8 million per month by next month.

 

Trump erupted at campaign manager over sliding poll numbers, sources say

Fauci announces good news about coronavirus drug

Trump: I didn’t say it. (He did, and here is the tape.)

Susan Rice: Kushner's comment would be laughable if it weren't deadly serious

Evidence Suggests Coronavirus Death Toll Much Higher Than Official Count | All In | MSNBC

CNN reporter on Jared Kushner's victory lap: I don't know what he's talking about

Israel sees spike in COVID-19 cases since Passover holiday

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/HkZlSHwFI

Haredi cities and neighborhoods have the highest increase of new cases of coronavirus while cities that observe health ministry directives reported a much lower number of confirmed patients

Navy to widen carrier probe, delaying decision on commander

https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/navy-widen-carrier-probe-delaying-decision-commander-70404757

WASHINGTON -- The Navy will conduct a wider investigation of circumstances surrounding the spread of the coronavirus aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt, a move that effectively delays a decision on whether to reinstate the ship's captain, who was fired after pleading for more urgent protection of his crew.

Howard Stern stands behind comments suggesting Trump supporters take disinfectants

https://www.foxnews.com/health/howard-stern-stands-behind-comments-suggesting-trump-supporters-drink-disinfectants

Long-time radio personality Howard Stern doubled down on his comments on Tuesday that suggested President Trump's followers should take a form of disinfectant and "see if his theory works."

 

Stern argued that comments or sarcasm on his controversial radio show isn't the same as what Trump riffed during a briefing last week amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“By the way, at a press conference in front of the country, is not the time to spitball ideas -- medical ideas -- when you’re a not doctor,” Stern said, according to the paper.

Trump still seems to not understand how bad the coronavirus crisis is

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/29/politics/donald-trump-coronavirus-politics-pence/index.html


 Any normal President who made a prediction that a miracle would sweep a pandemic away, only to see it infect a million Americans over a couple of months, would be politically shattered. President George W. Bush's failures over Hurricane Katrina look trivial by comparison. Yet Trump is protected in his bubble of unknowingness by a conservative media machine that attacks anyone who contradicts his comments.

Anti-vaxxer groups sow doubt about coronavirus vaccine before one even exists

https://www.timesofisrael.com/anti-vaxxer-groups-sow-doubt-about-coronavirus-vaccine-before-one-even-exists/

 Activists peddle conspiracy theories, then alter them as scope of pandemic changes; Bill Gates falsely accused of wanting to inject microchips into people
 

‘I love Diamond & Silk’: Trump backs Fox News personalities who spread coronavirus conspiracies

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/28/trump-support-fox-news-coronavirus-214517

 

President Donald Trump on Tuesday voiced his support for conservative video-bloggers Diamond and Silk, the pro-Trump duo who have promoted coronavirus conspiracy theories and been absent from their usual Fox News appearances.

Diamond and Silk, who have spoken at Trump rallies and are regulars on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends” morning show, have propagated various baseless coronavirus claims over the past month as the outbreak ravaged the United States. A Fox News spokeswoman did not immediately return a request for comment on their status with the company.

Although Fox News retains a stable of pro-Trump commentators, the president has grown increasingly frustrated with the network, despite its opinion hosts’ almost unflinchingly positive coverage of his administration.

New Report Raises The Question Of Whether Trump Didn’t Believe His Intel, Or He Lied To The People

Pentagon pulls money from overseas projects to pay for border wall

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/28/pentagon-money-border-wall-216156

 

Defense Secretary Mark Esper is restoring more than half a billion dollars in funding for military construction projects in the U.S. that were put on hold to help fund President Donald Trump's border wall, and instead will take money from projects that are primarily overseas.

The move, which is laid out in a memo dated Monday and obtained by POLITICO, drew an angry response from Democrats, who say the administration is "trampling" on Congress' power of the purse.

London Orthodox school redacted books to hide monarchs’ immodest behavior

https://www.jpost.com/omg/london-orthodox-school-redacted-books-to-hide-monarchs-immodest-behavior-626268

A haredi Orthodox girls high school in London redacted history books to cover up what it considers the immodest behavior of British monarchs.

Bill de Blasio, Chirlane McCray get roasted for park stroll during coronavirus

https://nypost.com/2020/04/27/bill-de-blasio-chirlane-mccray-stroll-through-prospect-park/

Mayor Bill de Blasio and wife Chirlane McCray didn’t let coronavirus stop them from traveling 11 miles from Manhattan to Brooklyn’s Prospect Park for a leisurely stroll — eliciting outrage from New Yorkers, online video shows.

De Blasio Breaks Up Rabbi’s Funeral and Lashes Out Over Virus Distancing

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/nyregion/hasidic-funeral-coronavirus-de-blasio.html?action=click&module=Top%20Stories&pgtype=Homepage

In a series of tweets, Mr. de Blasio denounced the gathering, which was broken up by the police, and warned that any violation of the social-distancing guidelines in place to stop the virus’s spread could result in a summons or an arrest.

“Something absolutely unacceptable happened in Williamsburg tonite: a large funeral gathering in the middle of this pandemic,” the mayor said in one post. “When I heard, I went there myself to ensure the crowd was dispersed. And what I saw WILL NOT be tolerated so long as we are fighting the Coronavirus.”

 Chaim Deutsch, a City Council member who represents a section of Brooklyn with a large Orthodox Jewish population, reacted with anger and disbelief on Twitter, writing, “This has to be a joke.”

Mr. Deutsch wrote: “Did the Mayor of NYC really just single out one specific ethnic community (a community that has been the target of increasing hate crimes in HIS city) as being noncompliant?? Has he been to a park lately? (What am I saying - of course he has!)”

“But singling out one community is ridiculous,” he added in another post. “Every neighborhood has people who are being non-compliant. To speak to an entire ethnic group as though we are all flagrantly violating precautions is offensive, it’s stereotyping, and it’s inviting antisemitism. I’m truly stunned.”

Others pointed to the crowds that gathered across the region earlier in the day to watch a military flyover by pilots from the Navy’s Blue Angels and the Air Force’s Thunderbirds that was meant to honor essential workers.

 

Coronavirus antibody tests have "really terrible" accuracy, researcher says

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/28/health/coronavirus-antibody-tests-terrible/index.html

Of the 12 antibody tests that were studied by the COVID-19 Testing Project, one of the tests gave false positives more than 15% of the time, or in about one out of seven samples. Three other tests gave false positives more than 10% of the time.

 

She said while it's unrealistic to think all tests will be 100% accurate all the time, their false positive rates should be 5% or lower, or ideally 2% or lower. 

 

 

Bern said one of the reasons for the high false-positive rates is relaxed requirements from the US Food and Drug Administration.

In mid-March, when it became clear that Covid-19 was starting to whirl out of control, the FDA loosened its approval standards in order to get more antibody tests out on the market quickly.

The agency started to allow companies to sell tests without first providing evidence that they worked. Some 175 test developers have taken advantage of these new rules and can legally market their antibody tests without first having their validation data evaluated by the FDA.

‘Life Has to Go On’: How Sweden Has Faced the Virus Without a Lockdown

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/28/world/europe/sweden-coronavirus-herd-immunity.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage

The Swedish Public Health Authority has admitted that the country’s seniors have been hit hard, with the virus spreading through 75 percent of the 101 care homes in Stockholm. Employees of the homes complain of shortages of personal protective equipment.

When responses are assessed after the crisis, Mr. Tegnell acknowledges, Sweden will have to face its broad failing with people over the age of 70, who have accounted for a staggering 86 percent of the country’s 2,194 fatalities to date.

That percentage is roughly on par with most other countries, but some critics here say the mortality rate among seniors could have been far lower with adequate preparation. In a letter to one of Sweden’s most prominent newspapers, Dagens Nyheter, 22 scientists accused the Public Health Authority of negligence.

“They tell people, stay home, but they also keep the restaurants open,” said Lena Einhorn, a virologist and one of the signatories of the letter. “They are advising people working in elderly homes only to wear masks when a patient is sick. Their policies are both ambiguous and rigid.”

Approval for Trump's Handling of Coronavirus Outbreak Sinks to Record Low

 https://www.newsweek.com/approval-trumps-handling-coronavirus-outbreak-sinks-record-low-1500651

President Donald Trump has received his lowest marks yet for his handling of the coronavirus outbreak, with net approval of his leadership on combating the pandemic down 22 points, according to a new Morning Consult poll.

Of 1,984 registered voters surveyed between April 24 and 26, 51 percent said they did not approve of Trump's handling of the outbreak, compared with 43 percent who said they did approve.

As a result, the net approval for Trump's performance, which is determined by deducting the share of those who disapprove from the share who do approve, sat 8 percentage points "underwater," Morning Consult said in a breakdown of its findings.

Republicans, Who Do You Think Is Bailing Out Your State?

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/27/opinion/coronavirus-state-budgets.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

As negotiations over the next coronavirus relief package heat up, a key point of contention — perhaps the key point — is whether Congress will provide meaningful aid to struggling state and local governments.

Boiling down the politics: Democratic lawmakers favor the move. Many Republicans, including the Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, do not. Some in the Trump administration have suggested that withholding aid is a great way to pressure states to reopen sooner rather than later. This is both cynical and destructive. Denying states a financial lifeline, even as Washington is showering trillions of dollars on the private sector, will only exacerbate the economic devastation that Congress is trying to mitigate.

 The idea of thrifty, self-sufficient red states propping up blue states has long been a Republican canard. In 2017, Paul Ryan, who was the House speaker, trotted out this line while pushing to repeal the exemption for state and local taxes as part of the tax package. (Ultimately, the deduction was merely capped.) “States that got their act together are paying for states that didn’t,” he claimed, and promised that his desired repeal would put an end to the rest of the country “propping up profligate, big-government states.”

 This claim was wrong then, and it is wrong now. To the contrary, a 2017 Associated Press analysis noted that “High-tax, traditionally Democratic states (blue), subsidize low-tax, traditionally Republican states (red) — in a big way.”

 In other words, Mr. McConnell’s state is effectively subsidized by blue states like New York and New Jersey. Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York reminded Mr. McConnell of this during his Thursday news briefing. “Senator McConnell, who’s getting bailed out here?” the governor demanded. “It’s your state that is living on the money that we generate.”

World can’t agree on how to count COVID-19 deaths, muddying toll

https://www.timesofisrael.com/world-cant-agree-on-how-to-count-covid-19-deaths-muddying-toll/

Some countries list only those who die in hospitals, others include victims suspected of carrying the virus who were never tested

 

In the United States, which has the highest death toll in the world at more than 50,000, the counting method varies from one state to another: while New York counts deaths in care homes, California does not.

In the United States, there are an increasing number of complaints from people whose relatives have died, officially of pneumonia, before COVID-19 tests became available.

 

 

Hasidim clash with police in quarantined Beit Shemesh neighborhood

https://www.timesofisrael.com/hasidim-clash-with-police-in-quarantined-beit-shemesh-neighborhood/

A large crowd of Hasidim clashed with police in Beit Shemesh on Tuesday, three days into a government-mandated closure of two of the city’s ultra-Orthodox neighborhoods.

Dozens of black-clad men screamed “Nazis” as law enforcement officers attempted to shut down Ateret Yehoshua Talmud Torah, an Orthodox elementary school in the Hasidic enclave of Ramat Beit Shemesh Bet, which had remained open in violation of Health Ministry directives intended to stop the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Sweden says its coronavirus approach has worked. The numbers suggest a different story

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/28/europe/sweden-coronavirus-lockdown-strategy-intl/index.html

Younger children have continued to go to school, although universities and schools for older students have switched to distance learning. Businesses -- from hair salons to restaurants -- have remained open, although people have been advised to work from home where possible.

On April 7, the government introduced a bill allowing it to act quickly and take decisions on temporary measures where needed. Care home visits were banned from April 1 and the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs asked people to refrain from non-essential travel, adding: "Keep your distance and take personal responsibility."

Among Nordic countries -- which share similar cultural, geographical and sociological attributes -- the contrast with Sweden is great. Finland declared a state of emergency, closed schools and banned gatherings of more than 10 people on March 16, restricted travel to and from its Uusimaa region on March 28 and closed restaurants, cafes and bars on April 1.

Jan Albert, a professor in the Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology at the Karolinska Institutet, told CNN: "It's clear that Sweden had more deaths [than many other European countries] up until now, and that's probably at least in part because we haven't had as strict a lockdown and not a lockdown enforced by law."

But he said he believed the majority of scientists in Sweden had been "relatively quiet" about the herd immunity plan because they thought it could work.

 

 

Asked whether the death toll would have been lower if Sweden had followed the same path as other European countries in introducing strict restrictions, Tegnell replied: "That's a very difficult question to answer at this stage. At least 50% of our death toll is within the elderly homes and we have a hard time understanding how a lockdown would stop the introduction of the disease into the elderly homes."

Whether Sweden's Covid-19 strategy has succeeded or failed may not be clear for months to come, but as countries across the globe count their dead and wonder whether they could have done more to halt the spread of the virus, the world will be watching.

Join - Jews come together to recite Psalms in memory of Israel's fallen

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/haredim-to-light-virtual-candle-for-soldiers-in-one-people-project-625987

In the framework of the project, participants can choose among the 24,000 soldiers who lost their life for Israel, learn about who they were and recite Psalms for them.

 

 Thousands of haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Israelis are marking Yom Hazikaron (Remembrance Day) by lighting a virtual candle and reciting Psalms to honor the memory of fallen soldiers.

The project “One People – Loving and Remembering” features a special website where participants can sign up to read chapters of Psalms with the goal of completing the full book 24,000 times, as many as those who lost their lives fighting for Israel. In order to complete the task, everyone is invited to join (in order to join click here.)

Can COVID-19 cause heart inflammation in children?

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/279316

'Multi-system inflammatory state' noted in children who have coronavirus or may have suffered in the recent past, medical experts say.

 

The shuttered neighborhood next door: Touring one of Israel’s virus hotspots

https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-shuttered-neighborhood-next-door-touring-one-of-israels-virus-hotspots/

As life returns to something like normal for many Beit Shemesh residents like me, some of the town’s Hasidic residents find themselves under a government lockdown

 

Bnei Brak mayor thanks soldiers for their help during virus lockdown

https://www.timesofisrael.com/bnei-brak-mayor-thanks-soldiers-for-their-help-during-virus-lockdown/

“This is the place to express on our behalf, and on behalf of all the residents of our city, thanks, appreciation and esteem for the hundreds of IDF soldiers and their commanders from diverse and excellent units, for the high quality and welcome actions for the welfare of 210,000 residents during the difficult days of the coronavirus epidemic,” said Rubinstein, who initially opposed the quarantine restrictions.

 

Fact check: Trump repeats false claims and Pence misleads on previous testing comments

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/27/politics/fact-check-trump-coronavirus-briefing-april-27/index.html

 President Donald Trump's Monday coronavirus news conference in the White House Rose Garden was shorter than usual and at least somewhat less acrimonious than many of the briefings he's held over the past month.

But Trump still made false and misleading claims, most of them repeats from past briefings. And Vice President Mike Pence accused a reporter of a misunderstanding about testing that Pence's own words had created weeks earlier.

Here are some fact checks from the briefing:

 

Trump returns to the stage with underwhelming testing promises

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/28/politics/donald-trump-testing-coronavirus-news-conference/index.html

Trump still thinks the best way to navigate out of the worst domestic crisis since World War II for which his administration has been exposed as unprepared and behind the curve is more Trump. But his routines of misrepresentation and overly optimistic assessments of the fight against the virus are doing little to build a convincing impression the President can find an exit strategy, or even is capable of keeping the nation heading in the same direction while one -- probably based on an elusive Covid-19 vaccine that is months away -- is found.

The President Walks Back Disinfectant Suggestion | Morning Joe | MSNBC

End all restrictions, they were unnecessary, Hebrew University researchers say

https://www.timesofisrael.com/end-all-restrictions-they-were-unnecessary-hebrew-university-researchers-say/

 

Israel should end all coronavirus restrictions and reopen the country to international travel, according to a Hebrew University research team that includes a prominent epidemiologist and two finance professors.

They crunched statistics from around the world and concluded in a newly published study that while lockdowns were necessary in London, New York and various other places, Israel didn’t need to confine people to houses or impose other strict rules.

Rabbis Edelstein and Kanievsky postpone beginning of yeshiva semester

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/rabbis-edelstein-and-kanievsky-postpone-beginning-of-yeshiva-semester-626099

On Sunday, a letter written by Edelstein and signed by Kanievsky stated that the semester should now begin with pupils remaining at home and conducting study partnerships and listening to lessons via the telephone.

The rabbis in their letter also requested that the teachers, educators, and rabbis of the various schools and yeshivas should speak with their pupils at least once a week to ensure that they have a study partner and are able to study. The rabbis also appealed to mothers and called on them to dedicate a room in the home so that their sons could study appropriately.

 

Exclusive: She's been falsely accused of starting the coronavirus. Her life has been turned upside down

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/27/tech/coronavirus-conspiracy-theory/index.html

Maatje Benassi, a US Army reservist and mother of two, has become the target of conspiracy theorists who falsely place her at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, saying she brought the disease to China.

The false claims are spreading across YouTube every day, so far racking up hundreds of thousands of apparent views, and have been embraced by Chinese Communist Party media. Despite never having tested positive for the coronavirus or experienced symptoms, Benassi and her husband are now subjects of discussion on Chinese social media about the outbreak, including among accounts that are known drivers of large-scale coordinated activities by their followers.

The claims have turned their lives upside down. The couple say their home address has been posted online and that, before they shut down their accounts, their social media inboxes were overrun with messages from believers of the conspiracy.

 

Trump, In His Own Twisted Way, Finally Owns Up to a Mistake

https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-in-his-own-twisted-way-finally-owns-up-to-a-mistake

The Orange One’s humble shuffling off the stage Friday night without taking questions showed that even he reaches a point where he knows he blew it.

 

FDA issues warnings on chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine after deaths and poisonings reported

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/04/24/fda-issues-warnings-on-chloroquine-and-hydroxychloroquine-after-serious-poisoning-and-death-reported.html

 The agency also said it became aware of reports of “serious heart rhythm problems” in patients with the virus who were treated with the malaria drugs.

• It said patients taking the drugs for approved reasons, including malaria or to treat autoimmune conditions like lupus, should continue taking their medicine as prescribed.

Ingraham: The truth about hydroxychloroquine

Ignorance Among Our Nation’s Leaders Is Not A Lonely Condition | Rachel Maddow | MSNBC

Trump offered a confusing coronavirus theory. Conservative pundits explained it for him.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/26/trump-coronavirus-conservatives-209325

The evolution of Trump’s idea that light might be used inside patients shows the symbiotic relationship between the president and his boosters.

 

Why Sweden rejected a coronavirus lockdown - BBC Newsnight

Trump’s Disinfectant Remark Raises a Question About the ‘Very Stable Genius’

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04



/26/us/politics/trump-disinfectant.html

Trump’s Comment on Disinfectant Prompts Experts to Warn Against Inhaling Bleach to Kill Coronavirus

https://time.com/5826882/coronavirus-trump-heat-bleach/

“Inhaling chlorine bleach would be absolutely the worst thing for the lungs,” said John Balmes, a pulmonologist at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital, and a professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco. “The airway and lungs are not made to be exposed to even an aerosol of disinfectant.”

 https://www.foxnews.com/politics/media-erupt-over-trump-comments-on-disinfectant-heres-what-he-said

Trump then launched into the comments that drew the harsh backlash, including one Washington Post headline that read, "Trump asked if disinfectants could be injected to kill coronavirus inside the body. Doctors answered: ‘People will die.’"

London police shut down backyard Jewish wedding that violated distancing rules

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/279221

Police had first spoken to the homeowner in the Golders Green neighborhood, London’s Jewish hub, as the celebration was being set up and were told that only 10 people would attend — all people who live in the house, according to a report . But when they returned Wednesday evening they discovered a “lavish banquet” laid out on long tables and were offered a beer by guests, the Daily Mail reported on Friday.

 

Why Some Doctors Are Now Moving Away From Ventilator Treatments for Coronavirus Patients

https://time.com/5818547/ventilators-coronavirus/

As health officials around the world push to get more ventilators to treat coronavirus patients, some doctors are moving away from using the breathing machines when they can. The reason: Some hospitals have reported unusually high death rates for coronavirus patients on ventilators, and some doctors worry that the machines could be harming certain patients.

Special Report: As virus advances, doctors rethink rush to ventilate

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-ventilators-specia/special-report-as-virus-advances-doctors-rethink-rush-to-ventilate-idUSKCN2251PE

Reuters interviewed 30 doctors and medical professionals in countries including China, Italy, Spain, Germany and the United States, who have experience of dealing with COVID-19 patients. Nearly all agreed that ventilators are vitally important and have helped save lives. At the same time, many highlighted the risks from using the most invasive types of them - mechanical ventilators - too early or too frequently, or from non-specialists using them without proper training in overwhelmed hospitals.

 

Coronavirus: Has Sweden got its science right?

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-52395866

There is no lockdown here. Photos have been shared around the world of bars with crammed outdoor seating and long queues for waterfront ice cream kiosks, and yet it is a myth that life here goes on "as normal".

On the face of it little has shut down. But data suggests the vast majority of the population have taken to voluntary social distancing, which is the crux of Sweden's strategy to slow the spread of the virus.

Usage of public transport has dropped significantly, large numbers are working from home, and most refrained from travelling over the Easter weekend. The government has also banned gatherings of more than 50 people and visits to elderly care homes.

Around 9 in 10 Swedes say they keep at least a metre away from people at least some of the time, up from seven in 10 a month ago, according to a major survey by polling firm Novus.

 

Florida’s No-Rules Vibe Gets a Coronavirus Reality Check

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/04/25/ron-desantis-re-open-florida-coronavirus-204833

Florida’s governor is desperate to get the state back to work. But the tourism industry is moving much more cautiously.

Trump grapples with a surprise threat: Too much Trump

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/04/25/trump-team-2020-polling-207675

Donald Trump’s top aides are fiercely debating a question their boss rarely confronted during his decades of jousting with tabloid newspapers, starring on reality TV shows and running a media-soaked presidential campaign: whether there’s such a thing as too much Donald Trump.

US to suspend visa of Israeli with coronavirus who flew to Tel Aviv

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liveblog_entry/us-to-suspend-visa-of-israeli-with-coronavirus-who-flew-to-tel-aviv/

A security official confirms to The Times of Israel that the man is a Mashgiach Kashrut supervisor from the ultra-Orthodox settlement of Beitar Illit.

The Israeli man had been tested for the virus last week and flew to the US anyways. While there, he was notified that his results had come back positive. He could not get treatment in the US due to a lack of health insurance and decided to return to Israel, according to the Channel 12 report.

Tzaras disease or spiritual warning

אמת ליעקב ויקרא פרק יג פסוק מו
(מו) בדד ישב מחוץ למחנה מושבו.
הנה זה ודאי שא"א לומר שהנגעים הם חולי ומכ"ש חולי המתדבקת ולפיכך צותה התורה בדד ישב, דהא פסקינן להלכה שהדבר תלוי בכהן וכל זמן שלא טמאו הכהן או שלא נזקק לו כמו בחתן או ברגל אינו טמא, ואי ס"ד דחולי המתדבקת הוא וכי בשביל זה לא תדבק בו המחלה? גם זהו לכאורה דבר מתמיה, שטמאו הכתוב ומסר בידו שיוכל להטהר שבאם יתלוש השער הלבן הוא יוכל ליטהר, והגע בעצמך שה"ז כמו שמספרים בדיחותא שתפסו אסיר א' וקשרו חבל בבית וקצה הב' מסרו לידו ונתנו בין שיניו והזהירוהו שלא יוציא מבין שיניו את החבל, והרי גם כאן שמסרו לידו את בחירת הטומאה או הטהרה ויוכל ע"י רצונו לבטל את עונש הבדידות שנגזר עליו. אלא ודאי דכל עיקר עונש הנגעים הוא רק בשביל שיגלו מן השמים שהוא נזוף, והיא פשוטה כנבואה, ותיקונו הוא שיהיה רחוק מבני אדם והתבודדותו היא היא שתביאו לידי תשובה, ובאם אינו מקבל עליו להיות מתנהג כשורה אזי הוא ביכלתו, אלא שלטובתו הוא שלא תקלקלו החברה והצוותא, והיינו שהוא ניזוק ע"י הצוותא והחברה, והרי הוא כמו מזיק וניזק שצריך שמירה מצד עצמו.