Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz launched a new campaign to encourage the over 1 million Israelis who have yet to be vaccinated for the coronavirus to get the jab. Ever since the outbreak of the third wave of the pandemic, senior Health Ministry officials have repeatedly called for a national plan to encourage inoculation among the unvaccinated. Yet for months, neither the ministry nor any of Israel's four healthcare providers made the kind of effort one would expect to see in the middle of a national health crisis. All that remains is to hope Horowitz succeeds in his effort. Better late than never, after all.
Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter
On Sunday, there were reports of heated discussions in the so-called "coronavirus cabinet," which nevertheless resulted in a decision to allow Israeli children to return to school on Sept. 1, subject to testing, coronavirus restrictions, and special guidelines. Through this decision, along with the highly important announcement vaccinations will be administered at schools despite opposition from Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and the government sought to signal their successful handling of the fourth wave was such that the schoolyear would commence as usual. We must hope this goes ahead as planned. A more responsible move would have seen the cabinet push back the start of the school year to October, after the High Holidays. Regrettably, the cabinet did not appear to enter the talks with the courage necessary to make this call for the benefit of all Israelis' health and lives.
And so, in contrast to the sense this government and the man at its head would like you to have, the fourth wave is hitting Israel particularly hard. The country is tragically recording a record number of seriously ill patients and deaths. You wouldn't know this, though, from any of the ministers' statements. Every day, dozens of families receive word of the death of a loved one from COVID-19, yet the prevailing atmosphere in the coronavirus cabinet and the government borders one of indifference toward the victims.
The prime minister has exaggerated the economic costs of lockdowns but made no effort to emphasize the terrible cost of 7,000 lost lives.
In his statements, Bennett reiterates that one of the pillars of his policy to avoid a lockdown is to bolster Israel's hospitals by gradually adding hundreds of medical workers, in accordance with the increase in hospitalized cases. This so that they can handle, or at least say they are able to handle, the increase in seriously ill patients. Indeed, some hospital directors have already done their part in understandings reached with the government and declared, with typical bravado, that hospitals will be able to provide reasonable treatment to the seriously ill, thereby allowing Israel to avoid a lockdown. Yet these declarations are far from the gloomy reality at some of Israel's hospitals. On Saturday, Israel's seven private hospitals went back to fighting for funds promised them by the government, with some hospitals' directors going so far as to say they had been deceived by the government and the state. Chief among these hospitals are the Hadassah and Shaare Zeked Medical Centers, without which there would be no medical hospitalization in Jerusalem. The fact that Israeli hospitals are once again crying out for help is a testament to the frailty of Bennett's declarations hospitals have already received additional workers.
Last week, Israel Hayom revealed that in recorded talks with other hospital directors from across the country, director of the public Rambam Health Care Campus Dr. Michael Halbertal admitted hospitals' supposed ability to care for seriously ill patients was a case of whitewashing. He said senior government officials had informed senior Health Ministry officials they "need to get to these numbers, compromise, lower your standards, everything goes."
According to Halbertal, Health Ministry officials responded by saying that "if we really reach these numbers and people start dying in the streets, no one will vote for you anymore. Think about what you are saying."
Halbertal told the other hospital directors that following heated discussions, Bennett had been convinced hospitals should receive additional budgets and medical workers. In practice, however, accounts from patients and their families indicate the standard of treatment the seriously ill are now receiving is far from reasonable. These patients, whose chances of recovering when given the best of care are not particularly high, now have an even lower chance of surviving. For this, we have a coronavirus cabinet that behaves as if Israel is not contending with a deadly fourth wave that continues to take ever more victims to thank.
Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!
