Throughout the entire press conference with Israel's new coronavirus commissioner, Professor Ronni Gamzu, the undeniable elephant in the room was the Health Ministry's ongoing and devastating failure to test and conduct epidemiological research on corona patients. The breadth of this failure was exposed by Israel Hayom 10 days ago.
Addressing this elephant directly, Gamzu said, "The Health Ministry wasn't able to sever the chain of infection" when it announced the IDF would assume responsibility for the tests and epidemiological research. What's more, months ago then-Defense Minister Naftali Bennett demanded the Health Ministry drastically expand the scope of testing, yet he was rejected – and now Israel is mired in a terrible second wave with no clear end in sight.
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The Health Ministry's resounding failure also reverberated immediately after the press conference ended, when Gamzu said he wouldn't support the agreement reached in principle between Health Minister Yuli Edelstein and the Haredi leadership over increasing the number of worshippers permitted to pray together at synagogues during the Tish B'Av fast.
Additionally, on Monday we learned that some officials in the Health Ministry considered exempting parts of the population from wearing protective masks because of this week's extreme heatwave, even though a similar exemption at the tail end of the first wave of the pandemic was one of the main factors in triggering the second wave. Dangerous decisions such as these, which could have been authorized by the Health Ministry, illustrate just how important it was to appoint Gamzu and how badly the public's trust needs to be rehabilitated.
Indeed, based on Tuesday's press conference, Gamzu can speak clearly, credibly, and convincingly and can enlist the efforts of the government and IDF. Gamzu also promised that any new restrictions imposed on the public will be sensible and logical – something that's been sorely lacking thus far, not mention exceedingly poorly explained to the public.
Gamzu, however, did not present any organized, detailed plan to fight the coronavirus. Essentially, the plans he is spearheading continue to be leaked to the press in a partial, tendentious, and out-of-context manner. This is basically the furthest thing from transparency, credibility, professionalism, and inclusion of the public. On Tuesday, for example, Channel 12 reporter Keren Marciano revealed another aspect of Gamzu's emerging plan, whereby local authorities will be graded based on the virus' spread, which will largely determine the pace and scope of opening businesses and cultural events. Some local authorities, however, have thus far exhibited severe ineptitude in dealing with the virus.
He also didn't discuss the long list of primary tasks that are still essential to curbing the pandemic. For example, Gamzu didn't say a word about his plan to fix one of the most tragic failures – the abandonment of the elderly in their nursing homes and hospices. Now, this is perhaps the most important and morally imperative mission – to protect the most vulnerable and hardest hit by the virus.
Gamzu on Tuesday also ignored the critical need to counter the "cult of corona deniers," which includes a handful of doctors who are endangering the public by insisting the "coronavirus is just the flu." He particularly ducked responding to the outrageous claim by a senior doctor at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, who said: "There wasn't even a first wave of the coronavirus here." If Professor Gamzu wants to restore the public's trust, he must start confronting those making light of the coronavirus, including some senior doctors at the hospital he himself manages.
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