All the warnings issued in recent weeks were perfectly clear. Yet the government, including Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and senior Health Ministry officials, on Wednesday decided to abandon their public and moral duty to do everything in their power to soften the blow of the coronavirus.
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The government's decision is tantamount to shifting all the responsibility for the fight against the coronavirus to Israeli citizens and Israeli citizens only, through the use of lies like "everything is under control" and slogans about Israel being in a good position to contend with the fifth wave now threatening the entire country.
On Wednesday, the Health Ministry released for publication new guidelines for quarantines and COVID testing according to which the vaccinated must now pay out of pocket for tests. The more serious problem, however, is that the new policy is built on a certain level of public trust and adherence that simply does not and cannot exist in any country anywhere. The new framework forces us to count on between tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands of Israelis to take an at-home COVID test each day, and that should they test positive for the virus, they will then take another PCR test at a government testing station, after which they will willingly quarantine for 10 days. All this in the absence of any documentation or oversight.
With its privatization and abandonment of coronavirus testing and quarantines, the government has neglected the health of all Israelis who are now left to fend for themselves, their families, and their loved ones. There can be no situation more tragic and terrible in this cruel and deceptive wave of a pandemic. Even if the Omicron variant causes mild illness in most of those infected, evidence of this from Britain, the US, and South Africa is not unequivocal. There are new findings that point to the variant causing unprecedented and serious harm to children. It was and remains the state's responsibility to do everything it can to moderate the spread of the virus and try to limit its harmful effect on the many Israelis who could become seriously ill and die.
With its new quarantine policy, Israel will no longer have comprehensive reports of daily infections, and this information is necessary for the government's ongoing efforts to fight the virus.
In practice, the government has decided to shirk its responsibilities and hold the public responsible without establishing mass testing sites and mass vaccination centers where Israelis could get vaccinated without having to wait in line and without having to rely on healthcare providers or imposing restrictions to rein in Omicron's spread to try and bring down the number of seriously ill patients.
Were the government to act in the public and health system's interests, it would have imposed restrictions on gatherings and required people to work and study from home a long time ago. One would have expected Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz and the heads of his ministry to demand the premier and the government impose significant restrictions on gathering, although not a lockdown, to slow the variant's spread. Instead, Israel is adhering to a controversial policy, or rather non-policy, the significance of which is mass infections and indifference. This may not be official policy, but it is the policy in practice, and it points to governmental and moral bankruptcy.
One of the central reasons the government is unwilling to impose any new restrictions is that some of its ministers oppose vaccines and are near coronavirus deniers. In addition, the government is hoping to avoid having to compensate those who would be financially impacted by COVID restrictions, like athletes and business owners. If the government avoids imposing a single restriction, it can always say it is unwilling and not required to pay compensation. Yet Israel will pay for this with our health.
Take care of yourselves. For the first time since the outbreak of the pandemic, no one else will do it for you.
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