Where’s the Coverage? ALS Patients Live Longer in Israel than Anywhere in the World
You may have seen a number of your Facebook friends posting videos of themselves being doused with buckets of ice water. You probably have heard of the “Ice Bucket Challenge.” This is an incredibly successful campaign by the ALS Association to raise awareness and donations for the fight against the disease commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
Numerous celebrities, musicians, athletes and public figures have participated including LeBron James, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, Jennifer Lopez, Justin Bieber, Gwen Stefani, Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, Jimmy Fallon, Chris Christie and others. The campaign has garnered millions of Twitter mentions, over a million videos posted on Facebook along with tens of millions of “likes,” and news coverage. Plenty of news coverage. A Google news search of “ice bucket challenge” turned up almost 24 million hits.
But the news stories miss one fact: ALS patients in Israel live longer than anywhere else in the world. Two to four times as many patients survive past the 10-year mark. Israel Hayom reports:
A study encompassing data collected from Israel for the first time found that the survival rate among Israelis suffering from Lou Gehrig’s disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) is two to four times that of patients in other countries.
In global terms, between 5 and 10 percent of ALS sufferers survive more than 10 years after being diagnosed. But in Israel, 20 percent of ALS patients survive longer.
If it doesn’t fit with the media’s negative depiction of Israel, it doesn’t get press attention. If it can’t be twisted to defame Israel, it won’t make it to the front page of the New York Times. When it comes to the fact that Israel is at the forefront of medical research and treatment… Where’s the coverage?
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