Jihad Bishara

Jihad Bishara (Hebrew: גיהאד בשארה) is an Israeli virologist. He is the director of the Infectious Disease Unit at Beilinson Hospital.

Quotes

 * I've been in this (infectious diseases) business for 30 years. I've been through MERS, SARS, Ebola, the first Gulf war and the second, and I don't recall anything like this (Israeli being into unnecessary panic due to COVID-19). There's unnecessary, exaggerated panic. We have to calm people down. People are thinking that there's a kind of virus, it's in the air, it's going to attack every one of us, and whoever is attacked is going to die. That's not the way it is at all. It's not in the air. Not everyone (who is infected) dies. Most of them will get better and won't even know they were sick, or will have a bit of mucus.
 * Jihad Bishara (2020) cited in "Israeli virologist urges world leaders to calm public, slams ‘unnecessary panic’" on The Times of Israel, 15 March 2020.