The measures being taken by the government and the top officials at the Health Ministry to check and contain the spread of corona – a new virus that all signs indicate could be more lethal than any that has appeared in the past 10 years – seem to be appropriate, responsible, well-considered, and steadfast.
The Health Ministry has been treating the virus with the seriousness it deserves, much more seriously than other western countries that are wealthier and more advanced than Israel. The ministry has taken unprecedented steps, which include actions more severe than any adopted elsewhere in the world.
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Thus far, the Health Ministry has been fast to provide the public with full reports about the spread of coronavirus, and the public's trust is key. If the public doesn't trust the information the healthcare system provides, it will not comply with the ministry's orders, which are growing ever more stringent. The ministry must main its policy of full transparency when it comes to information about the spread of coronavirus, even if that information isn't always welcome.
Israel is treating the virus as a serious threat. The Health Ministry has scenarios in place that are based on World Health Organization data about the spread of coronavirus. One of these scenarios is that the virus could infect most of Israel's population of 9 million, killing thousands.
If that were to happen, corona patients would flood the country's hospitals, which would not be able to treat them. When the virus was first identified in China, the ministry said it was only a matter of time before it arrived in Israel, which turned out to be true. The ministry's instructions are designed to prevent the spread of the virus to keep hospitals from collapsing under the burden, which has already happened at some Italian hospitals.
The decision Thursday evening to shut down the schools to keep the virus from spreading was the right one.
Evacuating hospitals
The Health Ministry has already prepared emergency plans for the evacuation of hospitals and other medical institutions to allow them to handle the spread of the virus. It must also acquire more ventilators, urgently. Meanwhile, the overburdened hospitals – a problem which no government has managed to solve – will compromise their ability to address the crisis.
It's not only the virus that is spreading. The false and frightening reports, rumors, hysteria, and panic that are also circulating and could actually facilitate the spread of the virus, causing immense harm to the public. The Health Ministry and the Israel Police must take more stringent action against anyone disseminating false information that is causing people to panic.
Most of the steps the Health Ministry has adopted depend on basic social solidarity and each citizen's personal commitment to the general public as well as on medical technology and the threat of extra policing. The ministry's request that the tens of thousands of Israelis who returned from corona-afflicted countries spend two weeks in quarantine requires the self-quarantined to demonstrate both discipline and civil solidarity. The Health Ministry knows it cannot supervise those under quarantine and is trusting that the public to take action and make sacrifices on behalf of the rest of the country.
Meanwhile, the public's willingness to comply with the ministry's sometimes difficult instructions depends on the public acknowledging that the government as a whole and the Health Ministry, in particular, are doing all they can to keep the harm to society and the economy at a minimum and that the Health Ministry is acting in a fair and moderate manner rather than succumbing to panic.
