Imagine a country that is at the peak of a coronavirus infection wave with 80,000 new cases every day and half a million active carriers, thousands of whom are children.
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In this country, 2,250 COVID patients are hospitalized across 24 hospitals. Of those, 900 are in serious condition, 250 are critically ill – between life and death – and 190 are on ventilators, without which they would not be able to breathe. Among those hospitalized, 120 are children, of whom 20 are in critical condition.
The Health Ministry of this country determined that the hospitalization rate is the highest since the outbreak of the pandemic two years ago, and this does not even take into account the 8,500 doctors and nurses who are in quarantine. Between 20-40 COVID patients die in this country daily. It also has 170,000 citizens in self-isolation, with the number of quarantined since the outbreak of the pandemic to reach one million soon.
The health experts of this country have said that there are children in the world – especially those unvaccinated – who after contracting Omicron, developed a severe heart condition and neurological disorders.
Now imagine that the prime, health, and education ministers of this country decided – at the peak of morbidity – to remove almost all quarantine guidelines, essentially allowing the spread of the virus among thousands of children.
If you heard of such a thing, no doubt you would say it cannot be true. That there cannot be a government that abandons its citizens and gambles with the children's lives. But precisely this is what is happening in Israel, with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz, and Education Minister Yifat Shasha-Biton, who agreed on the insane and extreme step, which proves how dangerous, immoral and irresponsible is the policy of the current government.
Bennett, Horowitz and Shasha-Biton are consistently and deliberately removing the layers of the protection of the public, especially the children in response to the education minister's irresponsible demands that began with the outbreak of the pandemic – under the guise of concern for public safety.
In the previous infection wave, Bennett and Horowitz were willing to go to any lengths to prevent a national lockdown, which cost the lives of over 1,800 Israelis.
In the current morbidity wave, they are again willing to pay the price.
One cannot possibly do away with self-isolation at the height of an infection wave, neither by adults nor by children. Such steps can only be taken when infections are decreasing, and even then, it must be done slowly, gradually, and cautiously.
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