Lessons of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict for Public Health: The Case of the COVID-19 Vaccination Gap.

In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic revealed a faceless, non-adversarial threat that endangered Israelis and Palestinians with the same ferocity. However, the capacities of the health systems to address it were not equal, with Israel more equipped for the outbreak with infrastructure, resources, manpower and later, vaccines. The pandemic demonstrated the life-saving benefits of cooperation and the self-defeating harms brought by non-cooperation. These trends are explored here by an international team of public health and environmental scholars, including those from different sides of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. This article explores the importance of recognizing the Israeli and Palestinian jurisdictions as a single epidemiological unit, and illustrates how doing so is a pragmatic positioning that can serve self-interest. We demonstrate how despite political shocks precipitating non-cooperation, there has been a recurrent tendency towards limited cooperation. The paper concludes with lessons over the need for reframing public health as a potential bridge, the need for structural changes creating sustainable platforms for accelerated transboundary cooperation to enable the steady management of current and future public and environmental health crises regardless of dynamic political crises, and the importance of civil society and international organizations in forging collaboration in advance of governmental engagement.

Regional lessons from the COVID-19 outbreak in the Middle East: From infectious diseases to climate change adaptation.

Global health threats including epidemics and climate change, know no political borders and require regional collaboration if they are to be dealt with effectively. This paper starts with a review of the COVID-19 outbreak in Israel, Palestine and Jordan, in the context of the regional health systems, demography and politics. We suggest that Israel and Palestine function as one epidemiological unit, due to extensive border crossing of inhabitants and tourists, resulting in cross-border infections and potential for outbreaks' transmission. Indeed, there is a correlation between the numbers of confirmed cases with a 2-3 weeks lag. In contrast, Jordan has the ability to seal its borders and better contain the spread of the virus. We then discuss comparative public health aspects in relation to the management of COVID-19 and long term adaptation to climate change. We suggest that lessons from the current crisis can inform regional adaptation to climate change. There is an urgent need for better health surveillance, data sharing across borders, and more resilient health systems that are prepared and equipped for emergencies. Another essential and currently missing prerequisite is close cooperation within and across countries amidst political conflict, in order to protect the public health of all inhabitants of the region.

Recognizing animal personhood in compassionate conservation.

Compassionate conservation is based on the ethical position that actions taken to protect biodiversity should be guided by compassion for all sentient beings. Critics argue that there are 3 core reasons harming animals is acceptable in conservation programs: the primary purpose of conservation is biodiversity protection; conservation is already compassionate to animals; and conservation should prioritize compassion to humans. We used argument analysis to clarify the values and logics underlying the debate around compassionate conservation. We found that objections to compassionate conservation are expressions of human exceptionalism, the view that humans are of a categorically separate and higher moral status than all other species. In contrast, compassionate conservationists believe that conservation should expand its moral community by recognizing all sentient beings as persons. Personhood, in an ethical sense, implies the individual is owed respect and should not be treated merely as a means to other ends. On scientific and ethical grounds, there are good reasons to extend personhood to sentient animals, particularly in conservation. The moral exclusion or subordination of members of other species legitimates the ongoing manipulation and exploitation of the living worlds, the very reason conservation was needed in the first place. Embracing compassion can help dismantle human exceptionalism, recognize nonhuman personhood, and navigate a more expansive moral space.

Reconocimiento de la Calidad de Persona en los Animales dentro de la Conservación Compasiva Resumen La conservación compasiva está basada en la posición ética que parte de que las acciones tomadas para proteger a la biodiversidad deberían estar dirigidas por la compasión por todos los seres sintientes. Los críticos de esta postura argumentan que hay tres razones nucleares por las que el daño a los animales es aceptable dentro de los programas de conservación: el principal motivo de la conservación es la protección de la biodiversidad; la conservación ya es compasiva con los animales; y la conservación debería priorizar la compasión hacia los humanos. Usamos un análisis de argumentos para aclarar los valores y la lógica subyacentes al debate en torno a la conservación compasiva. Encontramos que el rechazo a la conservación compasiva es una expresión de la excepcionalidad humana, la visión de que los humanos están en un nivel categóricamente separado y de mayor moral que todas las demás especies. Por el contrario, los conservacionistas compasivos creen que la conservación debería expandir su comunidad moral al reconocer a todos los seres sintientes como personas. La calidad de persona, en un sentido ético, implica que el individuo merece respeto y no debería ser tratado solamente como un medio para otros fines. Si hablamos desde fundamentos científicos y éticos, existen muy buenas razones para extender la calidad de persona a todos los animales sintientes, particularmente en la conservación. La exclusión moral o la subordinación de los miembros de otras especies justifica la continua manipulación y explotación de los seres vivos, la justa razón por la que necesitamos de la conservación desde el principio. La aceptación de la compasión nos puede ayudar a desmantelar la excepcionalidad humana, a reconocer la calidad de persona no humana y a navegar un espacio moral más expansivo.

Biopolymer-induced calcium phosphate scaling in membrane-based water treatment systems: Langmuir model films studies.

Biofouling and scaling on reverse osmosis (RO) or nanofiltration (NF) membranes during desalination of secondary and tertiary effluents pose an obstacle that limits the reuse of wastewater. In this study we explored the mineral scaling induced by biopolymers originated from bacterial biofilms: bovine serum albumin (BSA), fibrinogen, lysozyme and alginic acid, as well as an extracts of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) from bio-fouled RO membranes from wastewater treatment facility. Mineralization studies were performed on Langmuir films of the biopolymers deposited at the interface of a solution simulating RO desalination of secondary-treated wastewater effluents. All studied biopolymers and EPS induced heterogeneous mineralization of mainly calcium phosphate. Using IR spectroscopy coupled with systematic quantitative analysis of the surface pressure versus molecular-area isotherms, we determined the mineralization tendencies of the biopolymers to be in the order of: fibrinogen>lysozyme>BSA>alginic acid. The biopolymers and EPS studied here were found to be accelerators of calcium-phosphate mineralization. This study demonstrates the utilization of Langmuir surface-pressure area isotherms and a model solution in quantitatively assessing the mineralization tendencies of various molecular components of EPS in context of membrane-based water treatment systems.

Effects of biological molecules on calcium mineral formation associated with wastewater desalination as assessed using small-angle neutron scattering.

Calcium phosphate scale formation on reverse osmosis (RO) membranes is one of the main limitations on cost-effective desalination of domestic wastewater worldwide. It has been shown that organic agents affect mineralization. In this study, we explored mineralization in the presence of two biofilm-relevant organic compounds, the proteins bovine serum albumin (BSA) and lysozyme, in a simulated secondary effluent (SSE) solution using small-angle neutron scattering (SANS), and applied the results to analyses of mineral precipitation in RO desalination of secondary effluents of wastewater. The two proteins are prominent members of bacterial extracellular polymeric substances (EPSs), forming biofilms that are frequently associated with RO-membrane fouling during wastewater desalination. Laboratory experiments showed that both proteins in SSE solution are involved in complex mineralization processes. Only small portions of both protein fractions are involved in mineralization processes, whereas most of the protein fractions remain as monomers in solution. Contrast variation showed that composite particles of mineral and protein are formed instantaneously to a radius of gyration of about 300 Å, coexisting with particles of about µm size. After about one day, these large particles start to grow again at the expense of the 300 Å particles. The volume fraction of the 300 Å particles is of the order of 2 × 10(-4), which is too large to represent calcium phosphate such as hydroxyapatite as the only mineral present. Considering the data of mineral volume fraction obtained here as well as the solubility product of possible mineral polymorphs in the SSE solution, we suggest the formation of protein-mineral particles of hydroxyapatite and calcium carbonate during scale formation.