The beginning of the vaccination process is an exciting moment and will hopefully mark the end of the coronavirus pandemic.
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It also marks the end of a year that was full of arrogance and ingratitude.
Journalists and politicians have only recently started praising the government's actions for purchasing the vaccines. But before that, the government was criticized left and right.
"There is no coronavirus vaccine yet. It is not on its way to Israel. I don't understand whom this lie would benefit," said Opposition Leader Yair.
"Israel has made all the possible mistakes in preparing for the vaccine," wrote prominent Israeli journalist Ben Caspit.
There are many more examples. And the one thing that all these people have in common is that they speak with absolute certainty even though none of them bear any responsibility. And when they are proved wrong, there's not an apology to be heard.
According to their narrative, we started out unsuccessful to begin with. When critics saw China put its patients on ventilators, they cried out for more ventilators here in Israel. The government purchased thousands of machines within a short period of time, but it turned out ventilators were not as necessary as it first seemed.
Next, the critics claimed that the government failed to provide enough COVID-19 tests, even though Israel ranked 14th on the list of OECD countries according to the number of tests available for the population. And that's at the very beginning of the outbreak. Since then, Israel has been shifting between fourth and sixth place for many months, and some still dare to claim that the country doesn't provide enough tests.
The Knesset set up a special coronavirus committee two weeks after the pandemic was announced. In April, it published a report about failures in the management of COVID-19, and while the best scientific minds were busy trying to crack it, the book on How to beat an epidemic had already been written.
True, quite a few politicians did not set the best personal example when it came to following the Health Ministry guidelines. But nothing justifies the outrageous claim this is has been Netanyahu's fake crisis or MK Ayelet Shaked's demand to open the economy immediately, or MK Yifat Shasha-Biton's call to open gyms and pools despite Health Ministry recommendations.
On top of all that, some politicians have said they would refuse to get vaccinated. We have all been hoping for a vaccine for an entire year, and now that it's here, they don't want to use it?
There are still a few more difficult months ahead of us. We need to continue to be careful. But we can finally see the beginning of the end. It's high time you expressed some gratitude, but if you can't do that, at least show some humility.
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