It is a moral public imperative of the highest order and there's no other option: Israelis must enter full quarantine and transition to a complete emergency footing.
It was critically necessary to have done this a week ago when senior Health Ministry officials demanded it from the government – and the Finance Ministry pushed against the decision (and continues to do so). And although it thinks by postponing the inevitable it is mitigating the harsh economic blow, it could cause horrific damage on a scale the country has never seen.
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Only a full lockdown will give us a chance, even if uncertain, of tempering and slowing the morbidity rate of the coronavirus. It's the only way to reduce the number of severely ill people arriving at the hospitals, which heaven forbid could collapse if tens of thousands of people in desperate need of respirators and intense treatment suddenly require care.
Deputy Director of the Health Ministry Professor Itamar Grotto said this week that the government was too late in ordering Israelis returning from abroad into quarantine, even though Israel was among the first and most stringent in the world in this regard.
According to Grotto, we can even attribute the sharp daily rise in infections, including those in critical condition, to the fact that many Israelis had returned home before the directive to self-isolate was issued.
Just a week ago we could say the Health Ministry, headed by Director General Moshe Bar Siman-Tov, together with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu himself, were doing well in managing the worst global health crisis in 100 years in a responsible, measured, thoughtful fashion. Consequently, Israel seemed to have gained a crucial strategic advantage, even in comparison to many wealthy, powerful Western countries. Ever since, however, most of these countries have not only closed the gap with Israel, they have pulled ahead. As a result, the situation in Israel could deteriorate, heaven forbid, to something reminiscent of what is happening in Italy.
To this point, one of the problems to emerge in the management of this crisis was the lack of testing for the coronavirus. The problem isn't just a dearth of testing kits (for which there is now an endless global demand), but that some Health Ministry leaders were insistent – for some reason – that there was no need to rush out and test people on a mass scale. Hence, for an entire week, the Health Ministry prevented the creation of Magen David Adom-operated "drive-through" testing stations, which were already set to test around 10,000 Israelis per day. Under pressure from Netanyahu, the Health Ministry only came to its senses earlier this week and significantly increased the number of tests, which will also provide critical information to help map out the spread of the pandemic in Israel according to areas, communities and population centers – and hopefully ease efforts to moderate the infection rate.
And yet, even if tens of thousands of tests are administered per day, we can no longer supplant the urgent need to completely quarantine the entire country and prohibit people from leaving their homes (except, of course, for essential needs). The Health Ministry is calling the fight against the virus a "war," and on Tuesday Prof. Grotto said the concern was that the pandemic would kill more Israelis than all of the country's wars combined. Grotto added that the world after the coronavirus could be far different than it was before the outbreak, similar to the previous century in the wake of the two world wars. No less.
The Finance Ministry still doesn't get it
With that, it seems officials in the Finance Ministry still haven't internalized this harsh and poignant message. Sometimes, it seems like Health Minister Yakov Litzman doesn't get it either. The Health Ministry has no choice but to repeat its demands for a total shutdown, including synagogues. The time has come for Litzman to call on the entire public, including the ultra-Orthodox public, to obey the Health Ministry's directives and the law. The fact that he hasn't spoken out publicly over the large-scale quarantine violations by a portion of the haredi public is a mark of shame on Litzman and his problematic conduct as the minister responsible for our health.
Up to this point, the Finance Ministry has tried preventing the total and life-saving shutdown and has indeed succeeded, regretfully, in delaying and limiting its scope. But the Finance Ministry now has a rather different role in helping maintain our national fortitude. The fight against the spread of the virus must not only lean on a general quarantine, but also on strong social and economic foundations.
The Finance Ministry and government need to take into account the country's social and economic strength, and prepare to help and compensate – very generously and for a long time – those affected by the crisis. This must be announced as soon as possible to mitigate the financial and social panic that could itself hinder the war against the virus – and so that the public accepts and obeys the extraordinary and drastic quarantine directives.
There's also an immediate need for an economic plan to compensate and help the general public recover from the severe economic damage caused by the pandemic. This needs to be the Finance Ministry's contribution in the fight against the coronavirus, rather than pointless efforts to prevent a complete shutdown that could save tens of thousands of lives.
