Israel is still one of the countries where the pandemic is spreading at the quickest and most disconcerting rate in the world, and as expected, there is a constant rise in the numbers of patients in critical condition.
There is no longer any doubt that Israel is in a health emergency, and that the virus is hitting us hard, constantly, with the infection rates only rising. Until now, all the actions of the coronavirus commissioner Prof. Ronni Gamzu, despite his good intentions and statements, have not in any way helped in reducing the infection and spread of the pandemic in Israel. This after the government made the grave mistake of shattering to pieces Gamzu's demand to lock down only red cities, and thus shattered Israel's chances of avoiding a national lockdown.
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The decision of the government to lock down Israel through the High Holidays was taken, amongst other things, after the larger hospital directors warned the government and the prime minister that without immediate drastic steps, Israel could reach a catastrophic state as Italy, Spain and New York did during the first wave. Even the heads of the Health Ministry recommended a full national lockdown, with no compromises and no arm twisting, and that's why the government adopted their position.
However, due to political and sectoral pressure and public and media pressure, some of which was completely irresponsible, the government and Health Ministry began to crumble and puncture the lockdown, such as allowing prayer in synagogues and activity in private workplaces. These were a series of hasty decisions, where the heads of the government and Health Ministry surrendered, and thus weakened the lockdown, the public trust and the willingness to obey the already difficult restrictions that have come with the virus.
Now, a day after Rosh Hashanah and before Yom Kippur there is a need to conduct urgent introspection and tighten the lockdown in order to try and get a better chance for Israel to be saved from a meteoric spike in infection and death from the virus. This step needs, unfortunately, to include a complete ban on prayers in synagogues, the closure or reduction in the number of nonessential workplaces, and tighter enforcement of restrictions, including the new restrictions on the way protests are held (but in no way the banning of protests, a restriction that has not been put in place since the pandemic began).
Since the dawn of history, the challenge of a new pandemic without treatment or vaccine has been a public, social and political one just as much as a health and medical one. The ability to deal with a pandemic was always based on the full trust of the public in its leaders, in the full transparency of the information about the pandemic and in the fair decision making which took into consideration the public's health but also the protection of livelihood, society, mental health, and democracy.
And in the challenges that we face today, more than half a year after the pandemic came to Israel, the heads of the Health Ministry and government have failed again and again and again, and the public trust is now fading more and more. If the Health Ministry management and Prof. Gamzu don't get their act together and show some leadership and determination, they may completely lose control over the spread of the virus in Israel and may witness a horrible health, social and economic chaos that has not been seen since the country's founding. And that could be a catastrophe for generations to come.
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