Aside from a handful of charlatanical, delusional and dangerous doctors and directors, it's clear to anyone with common sense that the coronavirus is not the common flu, rather a pandemic endangering and changing all of our lives. However, because this virus lacks, in the meantime, any vaccine or other sufficiently effective medicine, effective public relations, delivering transparent and thorough information to the public, and fostering the public's trust in the decision-makers in the government and Health Ministry are some of the more critical tools for eradicating or minimizing the scope of the pandemic.
In recent weeks, however, it appears that the Health Ministry's new directorship, led by Health Minister Yuli Edelstein and Director-General Prof. Hezi Levi, has failed to sway the public over the severity of the coronavirus and the need to observe safety instructions. On Sunday, the ministry's top brass even failed to convince most of the other ministers in the so-called corona cabinet to support the Health Ministry's justified calls to re-impose certain restrictions on the public in terms of schools, public prayer, shows and other large gatherings.
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The Health Ministry's failure to explain its positions to the public was practically predictable, after Edelstein and Levi tried their best, almost immediately upon entering office, to deny that strict restrictions would ever be re-imposed under their watch. What's certain is that Edelstein and Levi combined don't have the persuasion and leadership skills of former Health Ministry Director-General Moshe Bar Siman-Tov.
Consequently, Edelstein and Levi are struggling to impress upon the public the need for new restrictions and to dispel the perception that they are zig-zagging on the matter after initially vowing to eschew additional restrictions. In recent weeks, other bad mistakes have been made, such as reopening schools en masse and Edelstein's own hasty announcement that protective masks were optional during the heatwave that hit the country several weeks ago. Due to particularly poor public relations, the public understood this temporary reprieve as a declaration that masks were unnecessary in the anyways oppressive Israeli summer heat – despite the fact that protective masks play a critical role in fighting the pandemic. Indeed, there's a good chance we will have to wear them for a very long time.
The health minister in recent days has reiterated, quite justifiably, the need for the police and local authorities to enhance enforcement of corona restrictions. Regardless, it's obviously impossible to place a policeman or municipal inspector on every street corner or in front of every store, and in this regard, too, the key to success is the public's discipline. The problem is that a large portion of the public no longer takes the situation or the Health Ministry's directives seriously.
People will only practice self-discipline if they see political leaders obeying these directives as well, if restrictions are enforced fairly and if the state shows it will financially compensate those who are harmed by the massive social and economic crisis caused by the coronavirus. Thus far, the state hasn't done enough to prove this to the public. This, too, has greatly eroded the public's trust in what the Health Ministry has to say, and it severely hampers the state's ability to eradicate the re-emerging coronavirus.
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