HIGHLY VACCINATED ISRAEL SWAMPED BY NEW INFECTION

The Israel Public Emergency Council for the Covid-19 had written to the newly elected Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett warning of the catastrophic impact of further lock downs and requested a meeting to discuss alternatives. “We are hearing warnings of an impending lock down during the upcoming holiday period, and we would like state clearly and strongly that another lock down will be nothing short of a catastrophe”.  “We urge you not to continue with the previous government’s policies which prevented open discussion and exchange of views. These policies led to three devastating lock downs, and now appear to be leading to a fourth lock down, which will be even more devastating. As a leader, it is essential that you hear differing opinions in order to evaluate new and better alternatives”.

“We won the first place in the world for the damage to our education system, harm to citizen’s health and other parameters. When the Government did get around to engaging the cooperation of the HMOs in implementing an important vaccination program that garnered worldwide admiration, it chose to sabotage the positive reputation gained by virtue of this significant achievement by using indirect coercive measures and turning a blind eye to severe violations of basic individual rights. These actions increased mistrust, polarisation, and hostility”.

“The government chose to present this severe damage and reckless conduct as an extraordinary success and Israel as “the first country to exit the crisis”- a declaration that in fact, that lacked any foundation in reality. Moreover, funds were heavily invested in short term products of low benefit, instead of acting calmly to strengthen the medical system and staff. The steep price of reckless, political, publicity seeking decisions that yielded ineffective results will be paid for years to come”.

“We have invested our entire lives in caring and promoting the health care system in Israel-in treatment, management, education and research. We could have chosen to remain in our personal and professional comfort zones and continued to observe with discomfort the failures of the government. However, we would have been unable to sleep peacefully had we not chosen to set out and act for the good of the state of Israel and its citizens”.

“We never expected that we would be confronted with a smear campaign by people who have been at the heart of the establishment for decades , launched merely because we chose to employ professional, strategic and wide-ranging considerations. A government of “change” cannot be just a title-change it must be demonstrated, change must be examined through actions. Therefore, during this sensitive and fateful period, we ask you for an urgent meeting with our representatives in order to present our positions regarding actions and steps to be advanced (and the data supporting them), and to ensure that we do not find ourselves once again in the situation where the system operates inefficiently, whereby we all pay an immeasurable price for policy that outweighs any benefits”.

“The complexity of the task you have taken on is unparalleled, certainly in these challenging times, and we wish you heartfelt success”.