In a special interview with Israel Hayom, Israel's first coronavirus chief insists we need to get used to living with the coronavirus and "stop publishing the number of new infections every day."
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Gamzu, who currently serves as director of the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, spoke to Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz a few weeks ago, when a fourth national lockdown was on the table.
"I told them lockdowns are a solution of weakness. It needs to be removed from our vocabulary. Look at what's happening in a lot of places around the world, including the US. They've learned to live alongside the pandemic. We don't need to push the numbers of new confirmed cases on the public every morning. The government needs to be responsible, to tell citizens: There are rules, this is the direction, but we want you to continue to live your lives, within the framework of the restrictions that have been determined."
He said: "The coronavirus will not disappear from our lives, so we're supposed to count confirmed cases every day? Every day, we'll publish the positive test rate? Do you know whether the positive infection rate includes antigens or not? What does a 4% infection rate mean to the public? Does this include serological tests at nursing homes or not?
"So the news says the positive test rate has increased from three to 4%. What does the [average] citizen understand from that? I want people to stop focusing on the number of new infections. I want people to feel comfortable about going to get tested, and not immediately say: 'In Holon, there are this many infections, in Modi'in there are that many.'"
Q: What do you think of the government's handling of the pandemic in recent months?
"The management is very complicated. The public diplomacy efforts too, both in finding places where people do not adhere to the guidelines and [there isn't enough] enforcement and fighting fake news and dealing with pandemic deniers. We need to work on specifics, learn about these places, initiate processes, get mayors to send out people to supervise, compensate mayors and communities so that they can increase their oversight force.
"The management [of the pandemic] on a macro level has not been particularly successful in Israel - both that of the current government as well as its predecessor, as well as the one before that and the one before that. I run Ichilov [TSMC] far better. I get into the details. The feedback I receive, my control system, is better than what is happening all over Israel."
Q: When you were coronavirus chief, did you feel like the government's handling of the pandemic was influenced by politics?
"This kind of an event brings together professionals and politicians. I can't tell politicians not to get involved. That's a lost cause, they will continue to intervene. But professionals need to stand up to them like a wall, to designate the red lines, to fight.
"Do you think the whole issue of banning travel to Uman was easy for me? That it was easy to shut down the education system in red cities? I had to fight the [government's so-called coronavirus] cabinet for that."
Q: Should the health minister be a professional in the field such as yourself?
"Yes, but in the end, politics penetrates everything. I don't know when there will be a professional in this role here. I would be very happy to do it. Tell me tomorrow, and I will leave Ichilov and go and do it. Obviously, it's one of my aspirations. Having a professional in this role would really help."
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