Opinion: The public is frustrated by the lockdown and the still soaring infection rate that seems unchanged by the vaccine drive; with Israel’s leaders solely focused on the March elections, we need real leadership to get us out of this morass
The upcoming March 23 elections, the coronavirus pandemic and the complete lack of faith in the government have in recent days all merged into a hideous blob of absurdity.
But while we are forced to live through a reality in which facts are treated at best as suggestions, we have to remember that there are very tentative signs of a decrease in the number of serious coronavirus patients.
And as the days go by, more and more Israelis aged 60 and over – those most in danger from the virus – will acquire that coveted protection only reached on the seventh day after the second dose of the vaccine.
Even so, despite the helpful influence of the vaccines, the virus’ reproduction number (known as “R”) on Monday passed the 1 benchmark among the general population for the first time in a while. This means that each infected person has infected at least one other person, and is a sign that the disease is spreading again.
While data shows that R number is actually dropping within the Arab and ultra-Orthodox sectors, the Haredi community has yet to face the grim reckoning for its insistence on mass gatherings and funerals and the UK variant is clearly still rampaging through the Arab community.
Hospitals are still battling to treat some 1,200 serious cases, with another 100 or so severely ill patients being added to that roster every day. We are also seeing a rise in young COVID-19 patients requiring hospitalization.
The country’s vaccine campaign also hit a bump in the road over the past few days, with some vaccination facilities standing almost empty and many over-40s ignoring the call to be inoculated.
I could hear the astonishment of a foreign journalist over the phone when he called me the other day from an empty vaccination center in Jerusalem.
European nations are battling each other for every vial, issuing legal demands for doses and suing pharmaceutical companies, with people being told they would have to wait until June to receive the vaccine.
But in Israel, fewer and fewer people are turning up to get vaccinated. This is sheer madness given the high levels of hospitalizations among young people and data showing that the vaccine is effective against the UK variant.
This absurd situation goes hand in hand with a deep crisis of public confidence created by the selective enforcement of coronavirus restrictions, the ultra-Orthodox mass gatherings and the dearth of fines for Haredi educational institutions opening against the law.
This all points to Israel teetering on the brink of catastrophe regarding the pandemic and its continued spread.
Granted, if the vaccines begin to prove their effectiveness and bring down the infection rate, we can weather the storm. But the vaccines are our only hope given that the government seems to have lost all link to reality.
No other country would have entered such a long and strict lockdown only to come out of it when national infection rates hover between 8 and 10 percent, with no drop in hospitalizations and when signs point to a possible resurgence in cases.
All of this could change in the coming days, but until it does we cannot possibly lift the restrictions currently in place.
The Israeli people are battered, bruised and tired. Parents want their children to go back to school, business owners are fighting to survive and people returning from work are stuck in traffic jams due to police checkpoints – and all the while the news reports yet another mass Haredi event going on unimpeded.
The sense of frustration felt by many is completely understandable and is only exacerbated by the interminable wait for the lockdown and vaccines to take effect.
What the country needs is leadership. A considered and organized plan to handle the infection by area, which would free us from this national gridlock.
Israel’s leaders are too busy with elections and the lockdown to give the actual impact on human lives more than a passing thought.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu cannot be bothered to show even a modicum of care as his ultra-Orthodox allies brazenly flout restrictions and Defense Minister Benny Gantz is scrambling for votes for his struggling Blue & White party by adopting an “open everything now” policy.
No one is talking about the weak, the poor and the elderly who are most in danger from the pandemic or about the medical professionals forced to deal with dozens of deaths every day.
Let us hope the vaccines do indeed work, for they are our only hope – so long as Israelis understand this and actually go to get vaccinated.
As reported by Ynetnews