“Does not guarantee it was the last closure”

Prof. Ash added that he “very much hopes that the vaccines will give us the option not to close back. I am always asked if this is the last closure. I cannot guarantee.”

What morning, God forbid, are you going to tell the prime minister that you are closing everything, and when are you telling him “the vaccines work, open everything”?
“The second morning is far away. It will not happen tomorrow. We are vaccinated with less than half of the population. I am afraid of the morning when we will reach a coefficient of infection that will rise quickly in one direction, pass one.”

Many parents of students in grades 7-10 ask themselves what country we live in when the malls open in front of the schools.
“First, we opened the schools first, because we opened kindergartens and classrooms until Wednesday before the malls. We decided to open up the education system gradually because of the fear of the British mutation, which is more contagious to children.”

Were we prepared correctly in terms of the education system?
“If I went back a year, then a lot of other things could have been done, especially reducing the capsules.”

Why was this not done during the months of quarantine?
“Part of it was understanding that the vaccines were going to do things differently, and then the mutations came up and raised question marks.”

Sounds like you’re on the more pessimistic side.
“I am on the more careful side. The responsibility is on me and care must be taken.”

Ichilov director Prof. Roni Gamzo, who was the first corona projector, was asked at the conference if he thought Israel had succeeded in the battle against Corona, and replied: “We have to tell the truth: we could have been more successful, it is not a complete success. We could have been worse, and we are somewhere a little Above all, with a lot of lessons to learn. “

Give me one lesson.
“Connection of all the communities in the State of Israel. In difficult situations we are examined in the unification of the communities, in the unification of the people, in the unification of people who are in such a locality and in such a locality. And this event of the corona found all of Israel’s social weaknesses. “It would be better if there were more billions for the health care system. I said, not at all. I said – take the billions and transfer them to Israeli society. You will address the problem of the economy and the social gaps, because these are the gaps that created the great difficulties in caring for Corona.”

A great deal of the morbidity occurred in minorities. Also among the Arab public, also among the ultra-Orthodox public. Maybe it’s a matter of state and enforcement. There was no equal enforcement in the State of Israel. What happened in the center of Gush Dan did not happen elsewhere.
“Enforcement starts with social disparities. There are unimaginable social disparities in Israel. It weakens our resilience. We must address this. But where do you see it? In the information, in the responsiveness of the population. A population that feels alienated, that has been alienated, that has not been properly addressed.”

Do you think the health care system today is ready for the next crisis? Hospital administrators usually say she is hungry, exhausted, after government abuse.
“Do you remember the election campaign on March 2, 2020? Everyone said ‘the health system is collapsing, not being cared for and it is very weak’. And in the beginning the corona everyone was worried. I know the health system from the inside, it has a lack of resources but it has human strengths.”

Do you think we are in July-August completely behind this event?
“We are in the decline phase. Vaccines are having a huge impact. In my estimation – in May, June, July we are after the epidemic event of the corona. The corona will continue to be a sporadic disease.”

Former Director General of the Ministry of Health, Moshe Bar Siman Tov, who served in the post when the plague broke out, was asked what could have been done differently to deal with the corona, and replied: “Two things. First, we have not been able to instill in the public the feeling that this is a very, very long event, that requires a profound and perhaps permanent change in our lifestyles, especially education and gatherings. The second thing is that we had to involve the box offices on many more levels. I think the epidemiological investigations should have been given to the HMOs and not to the IDF.

“But the first thing is more principled, because we do not yet internalize that in all probability this thing will accompany us for a very long time. It may be down for some time, I do not know what the future will be. But the question is what reality we are all preparing for.”

As for politicization. You sit at press conferences where you talk about an epidemic, and next to you the prime minister after that talks about an emergency unity government. And in general, the constant accusation against the Ministry of Health is that it serves the wishes of the defendant Benjamin Netanyahu, who is using this crisis.
“I have said all along: the mass of decisions is made matter-of-factly. It is not that there is no politics in decision-making. In the end there are politicians who represent different audiences and different interests and some kind of synthesis is created.”

For example, unequal enforcement. It is clear to you and me that it would have been better to close certain cities than comprehensive restrictions.
“True. If we were in a world where we could do what we want, maybe we would hermetically close cities. This is not possible in Israel, period. There are no separate epidemiological cells. Even when we close a city, legally, we let people go to work in vital places. And those places can be hospitals or the education system. “

Do you feel comfortable with the wide opening of the Israeli economy?
“I think it’s a wrong opening, not just a matter of rhythm. We do not know enough about the virus, we do not know what the potential of the virus is even in vaccinated people. We hear the question marks about the mutation or the South African variant and know there is potential for the formation of Other variants that may be resistant to the virus.

“I’m in favor of returning to school, even if in part. I’m experiencing this as a parent, too. We need to return in some safe pattern. But I’m saying sadly, and I know it’s unpopular, I think mass cultural events, mass sporting events, mass prayers, “Things like this have to wait until we have a much higher level of control over the disease.”

And if it does not materialize in another month?
“I think we will see the epidemic migrate among other audiences, spreading more among children.”

The corona projector in Arab society, Ayman Saif, commented on the renewed rise in morbidity in localities in the sector: “In the last week and a half we have seen an increase. The reason is probably the British mutation that was more in Jewish and ultra-Orthodox society, and not us. Apparently it started to rise. “In the daily morbidity. But I think it is under control because the absolute numbers do not go up insanely. The solution is to increase the percentage of vaccinated in Arab society.”

According to him, in the age group of over 60 in Arab society, the rate of vaccinators reached 67%, compared to 89% in general society: “I have two problems: the Bedouin society in the south and east of Jerusalem, where we are around 50%.”

Why?
“Accessibility. There were not enough stations in these areas, we solved it and there are more stations for both the Bedouin in the south and in East Jerusalem and in the Arab communities in general. And the ads and Pike News, which were probably much higher in the Arab public.”

There is a lot of Pike News on Facebook in Hebrew as well.
“True, but add to what we hear from the Arab world, there is a lot of Pike News there. We are preparing for Ramadan and the return of weddings, so for me it is critical that we take advantage of this time and increase the percentage of vaccinated.”

Will the green mark work in Arab society? My guess is that it will not work, and not just in the Arab sector, at large family events.
“The issue of enforcement is important. Enforcement should be increased in Arab localities.”