Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has called on the Israeli public to buckle up so they can safely negotiate the pitfalls of the fourth COVID-19 wave. On Saturday night he posted his COVID-19 survival plan on Facebook but one element used previously was missing: There was no lockdown.
Rather, the message, which could have been summed up in one sentence, was that Israelis will have to learn to live alongside the virus.
He said “closures have a direct cost in human life” and the people need to understand “what your responsibilities are as citizens.”
Bennett was correct in what he said, the price tag of the three closures that Israelis endured in the past year not only cost NIS 200 billion, but created more damage than gain in many other areas of the people’s lives.
Skipped doctors’ appointments and routine screenings have created a shadow health crisis. Whether it was during the first wave in which people were afraid to go to the hospital or health clinic because they thought they would get infected, or later on when in-person slots were scarce and waiting times long while the citizens attempted to play catch-up, the impact of the medical care that was deferred translates to sicker Israelis – now and probably for years to come.
According to Prof. Cyrille Cohen, studies show that one in every two people experiencing stroke did not make their way to the hospital for fear of being contaminated, resulting in all types of long-term damage and even death.
The psychological impact of lockdowns, though still being studied, is beginning to become apparent, too. A study published in March 2020 by the University of Michigan found people tired and lethargic, experiencing sleep disturbances, bouts of depression, nervousness and anxiety.
A study this year published in American Psychologist by a team of British researchers showed that mental health issues significantly increased during the lockdowns.
And an Israeli study published in January in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health showed “a high level of psychological distress” among those it evaluated.
Moreover, as Bennett described, lockdowns make the country’s economy sick.
“If we continue with the policy of closures and destructive restrictions on the economy, we will simply become economically impoverished,” the prime minister wrote.
“The huge amount we spent on closures, whose effectiveness is low anyway, was funding that was actually taken from important issues for you and your children. How many lives of soldiers will we lose if we can not afford to equip them with modern anti-aircraft weapons, because we have spent the money on closures? How many children and adults can we not send for life-saving surgery? How many hospitals in the periphery can we not establish?”
And so on and so on.
Bennett was also right that lockdowns do not work that well – at least in Israel.
“The idea that a lockdown is helpful is something that was not proven during the third wave,” said Prof. Arnon Afek, deputy director-general of Sheba Medical Center. “The lockdown was not effective even with the Alpha variant, not to mention the Delta variant. The third wave was stopped by vaccines.”
Israel entered its third nationwide lockdown a week after the first vaccines were administered to healthcare workers and the elderly. The closure, which was originally set to last two weeks, did little to curtail the country’s climbing infection rate. The lockdown was only lifted in early February when around two million Israelis had received both shots.
The prime minister equated living alongside the pandemic to getting in the car: “Consider, for example, road accident victims,” Bennett wrote. “After all, it is possible to bring zero deaths from road accidents by banning driving on Israeli roads. But we all understand that we must live and allow movement in Israel.
“The same is true with the Delta virus.”
What Bennett really means is that everything in life has a potential risk. When people get in their cars, they estimate the chances of returning home safe and well are much greater than the chances of having an accident.
But at the same time, the ability to get from one place to another safely is forged by a contract between the government and the people.
“You can say, ‘please drive carefully,’ to people and that the rules are important because it is dangerous to drive a car fast or shift lane too many times,” Cohen said. “But the government doesn’t stop at that. Because if you only trust people, you’ll have the Wild West.”
Instead, the state places police officers and traffic lights on the roads. It provides a set of rules and enforces them.
“Why do people not run red lights?” Cohen asked. “Some say because it is dangerous. But some say they are afraid to get fined – for those people we need rules.”
At the same time, the government does not pay to have a police officer on every corner – there are not that many cops and it would cost too much money.
This does not mean that the government should not have a “deterministic” point of view, said Prof. Nadav Davidovitch of Ben-Gurion University. Rather, the government should invest in and implement prevention strategies to reduce deaths as much as possible – on the roads and from COVID-19.
“We should reduce the number of preventable deaths, but understand that we cannot reduce them to zero,” he said.
And here is where the public comes in: The people need to differentiate between the actions of the government – the Green Pass or purchasing vaccines – and the responsibilities of the citizens – wearing masks or getting inoculated.
“The coronavirus is by itself nothing. If there is no host to transmit coronavirus, the virus will die. The people are responsible for spreading the virus, Cohen said, “and the people need to understand the role they can play in stopping it.”
This is especially true when discussing the one million Israelis who have still not gotten vaccinated. “They should do their utmost to take the vaccine,” Afek said. “They should be responsible not just for themselves and their family members, but for the whole community. Solidarity is a basic part of fighting the disease.”
Israel is the only country where vaccines are accessible to everyone, including a third shot for specific populations. But the people have to take advantage and come out and get vaccinated.
The government has also now made rapid home tests available so people can check themselves when they have symptoms. This alone could stop the spread of infection. But they only work if people use them.
A mask is only effective if it is worn. And no one forces anyone else to put on or attend a massive gathering.
“You, for your part, must preserve your life and the lives of those dear to you,” Bennett said.
The coronavirus is here to stay – or at least health officials understand it is not going away anytime soon. People need to stop believing it will disappear, said Afek, and instead learn to live safely with the virus.
“More difficult days are expected,” Bennett said. But if Israelis put on their safety belts they will have a fighting chance of surviving the ride.