Prime Minister Naftali Bennett humiliated senior Health Ministry officials and senior physicians advising the government at the UN General Assembly and at a subsequent press conference, a senior ministry official told Israel Hayom.
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"Worse still, even if it wasn't the prime minister's intention, on one of the most important world stages, he gave a boost to those causing the greatest damage to the fight against the pandemic in Israel – vaccine opponents, the vaccine-hesitant, and coronavirus deniers. The prime minister's remarks implied he does not trust the professional figures at the Health Ministry and that they 'stutter' when he asks them [questions]."
The senior Health Ministry official added that "the impact of Bennett's remarks could be destructive and fatal, both in terms of a difficult blow to public trust as well as in the tendency to adhere to Health Ministry recommendations and orders as well as the desire of millions of Israelis to get vaccinated. This may be one of the most serious and offensive steps ever taken in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, and that's without it having been done at the UN," saying, "It looked like the assassination of the Health Ministry echelon before all of the world."
A senior figure in the Israeli health system told Israel Hayom that "it's very tempting to think about what Defense Minister Bennett would have said about Prime Minister Bennett: 'Have you gone mad? What are you doing? Get yourself together.' Genuine leadership knows how to harness the professional echelon and work with it, as some of the other ministers do very nicely, conducting substantive discussions, and mainly, not looking for excuses for the most difficult data, according to which since the outbreak of the fourth wave, over 1,200 Israelis, whom he made not one mention of, have died. Bennett's remarks were shocking. It's inconceivable to think they were made by a prime minister, and he continues to take pride in his achievements in the war on the coronavirus and how wonderful everything is – for shame!"
Health Ministry officials further said Bennett's unprecedented remarks took aim at the piercing criticism of the coronavirus policies the prime minister raised at a meeting of the so-called "coronavirus cabinet," the most professional and important body advising the government in the war on the coronavirus, Thursday. This meeting was the first time the cabinet said the government's policies were dangerous, incorrect, destructive, and in opposition to the repeated demands of senior Health Ministry officials. They said this policy had already led to mass infections, mass quarantines in the health system, and a serious and ongoing increase in the number of deaths and those in seriously ill condition.
Bennett spoke to members of the press before boarding his flight to Tel Aviv. He said: "I very much respect the health experts and cherish their work. Nevertheless, imposing more and more sweeping restrictions on citizens is not the government's policy. We will prevent sweeping restrictions on the general population at this stage.
"The policy is to keep the State of Israel as open as possible, as open an economy as possible alongside a focused effort on the unvaccinated and centers of morbidity," he said.
Referring to the government's traffic-light system for ranking local authorities according to coronavirus infection rates, Bennett noted: "The 40 reddest communities in Israel right now are in the Arab society, and over 90% of people hospitalized in serious condition are unvaccinated. Therefore, despite the pressure, we will avoid sweeping restrictions on the entire population at this stage."
He said, "We will try to avoid activity with low efficacy and high incidental damage. We need to understand, the significance of such sweeping activities is the immediate loss of thousands of places of work for the State of Israel's citizens."
Earlier Wednesday, the prime minister was updated on the status of Israel's vaccination campaign in a phone call with the heads of Israel's four national healthcare providers, as well Health Ministry Director-General Nachman Ash, coronavirus chief Salman Zarka, and the head of the IDF Home Front Command, Maj. Gen. Ori Gordin.
Bennett called to focus the campaign's efforts on the Arab public, noting the vaccination rate in Arab communities and east Jerusalem were particularly low.
Meanwhile, Israeli Medical Association head Dr. Zion Hagay accused Bennett of crossing "red lines" in his speech at the UN General Assembly Tuesday.
He said: "What started as biased leaks by anonymous sources was revealed as a blatant deligitimization campaign by the prime minister of Israel against doctors… who work night and day in the war against the virus. We have never seen such a thing until today."
This was the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic that the cabinet issued such piercing criticism of the government over the unforgivable outcome of its policies: Over 1,200 victims in this fourth wave – meaning around 20 to 30 people succumbing to the virus every day, between 8,000 and 10,000 daily infections, over 700 people in serious conditions – with around 80 patients becoming seriously ill every day, and over 200 people on ventilators – a record number in this current wave.
The cabinet discussion was held last Wednesday. Participants included Health Ministry Director-General Nachman Ash, head of Public Health Services at the Health Ministry Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, coronavirus chief Professor Salman Zarka, and the head of the Infectious Disease Unit Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer Professor Galia Rahav.
Calling the current situation one of the greatest failures of the Education Ministry and the current government, the experts said the way the school year began and was set to reopen Thursday, following the Sukkot holiday, does "not include the majority of components that were planned to be included by the Health Ministry, and they are [merely] minimal tools to bring down the infection rate.
As Israeli students across the country return to school, "this could lead to an increase in morbidity, and because we are already struggling to provide optimal care to all patients that require intensive care and ECMO [machines], we could see severe instances of prioritizing young patients who require critical care," the experts said, in remarks echoing those by a number of hospital directors who spoke to Israel Hayom in recent weeks.
Appearing to say mass gatherings were responsible for current morbidity levels, they said that "continuing to hold out on hope morbidity [levels] will decrease despite the return to studies, just to avoid having to impose a single, most minimal restriction on gatherings, is unreasonable.
"There is no logic to holding large gatherings like sporting events at a time of record, uncontrollable infections, and when dozens of young, seriously ill patients are coming in for treatment every day."
Panel members said: "The extent of the ongoing morbidity over the last month is taking a serious toll, costing us many lives, and despite the hopes for a decrease in morbidity levels thanks to the vaccination campaign, it is impossible and illogical to continue down the current path" and a change in policy for the near future is needed "until a significant and continuous decrease in serious illness has been proven."
The experts further said it was a serious mistake for the government to base its policies on a desire not to pay compensation to businesses and leave the market open. They said the current policy amounted to "dealing with [the pandemic] for an open-ended amount of time with barely any central effort to thwart or decrease infections."
Experts called to tighten restrictions on gathering so that no more than 300 people are allowed to convene in indoor spaces and continue to make vaccines accessible to Israelis aged 12 and over who have yet to be vaccinated, as well as those who have yet to receive the third dose of the vaccine.
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