Prof. Hagai Levin, chairman of the Association of Public Health Physicians, announced his resignation this evening (Saturday). In addition to his resignation, Levin announced the termination of his membership in the team of experts advising the Corona Project as part of Operation Magen Israel.
For a long time, Levin was known to oppose government policy and the policy of imposing closures. Among other things, Prof. Levin emphasized in many interviews he gave in the various media that the way the government chooses to deal with it causes a lot of damage. In doing so, he addressed, among other things, the physical damage caused by the closure of gyms and the restriction of movement, as well as the severe effects of the closures on the mental health of the public.
“I, like most public health experts in Israel, believe that the Israeli public has fallen victim to the misconception of decision-makers at the political level. Despite our and other officials in the Ministry of Health’s efforts to promote a health and public health approach to tackling the crisis, Instead of a totalitarian-police approach, there should have been genuine cooperation and transparency with the public, while creating trust, solidarity and intrinsic motivation to adhere to careful health behavior during the Corona period while exercising discretion and risk management, personal, community and national. She was pushed to the margins, “Prof. Levin wrote in his letter of resignation.
Prof. Levin has criticized the government in recent months and stressed that there is a deliberate choice to avoid listening to doctors and scientists who present a different line of thought from government policy. In addition, many emphasize the great importance of differential treatment of disease, and without closing the whole country. Prof. Levin claims that “the government failed” in that it did not treat those entering the country from Ben Gurion Airport and did not in fact “refuse to take obligatory measures to reduce the increase in morbidity.”
Prof. Levin signed his letter and said: “In view of the size of the hour, the need to heal Israel and the serious threats to public health during this period, and in view of
The political and value depression, I feel a deep commitment to examine the way in which I can influence the public to the greatest extent in Israel. “Following his remarks and other things he said recently, the possibility arises that he intends to join politics and run in the 24th Knesset elections.