A doctor’s view of closing down in the coronavirus pandemic - opinion

For the greater part of the year, there was legitimate anxiety about going to work every day, knowing you were putting yourself at risk by taking care of your patients. Overwhelmingly, medical care professionals set aside fears and family and personal responsibilities for the care of their patients and the community, often at the expense of their own health.

I belong to a small but significant group of people who commute regularly from Israel, where their families live, to continue caring for patients abroad.

We have had to make last-minute travel arrangements and deal with multiple canceled flights on multiple airlines just to continue to fulfill our responsibilities to our patients.

At one point I had 16 outstanding tickets from Tel Aviv to New York on four different carriers that had been canceled because of the COVID crisis.

When not working while in Israel, I have not been out of quarantine more than two weeks total in the last year. I have not gone inside a synagogue since last Purim. Passover, Yom Kippur and Rosh Hashanah were all spent in quarantine.

I have followed the quarantine rules to the detriment of my comfort and health, with a heavy heart, though not begrudgingly, because I understand what steps are required to prevent the spread of disease.

Now, unfortunately, the Israeli government has moved toward almost tyrannical behavior regarding medical professionals like myself. Since the airport shutdown, I have not been allowed to go home to see my family.

Although I am vaccinated, the government refuses to give me a green passport because my vaccines were done in an American hospital.

When my wife called to find out what could be done, she was told that even if I received such a passport, I would be placed in a quarantine hotel against my will until such time as they felt it was acceptable to send someone to do an antibody test. When we inquired if we could just do the antibody test prior to coming, we were told no, because only Israeli antibody tests are acceptable.

SUFFICE IT to say, Israel expects the whole world to accept its tests as being accurate while at the same time refusing to accept perfectly accurate and high-quality medical tests from around the world for no rational medical reason. It is purely and simply out of arrogance toward others.

I have heard from others who did manage to return, how people are placed in buses without windows, how they are mocked and laughed at when showing completely unqualified staff their green passports and vaccination and antibody records, treated with indifference at best, and more commonly with disdain.

This from the same government where officials openly flout lockdown and quarantine rules while tearing other families apart.

It is unjustifiable that trained physicians should be denied free movement while exemptions are made for athletes to compete overseas in crowded environments. I do not see how any right-thinking person can feel or believe that people giving up everything to care for others is less in the national interest or less of a kiddush Hashem (sanctification of God’s name) than a football game.

I cannot imagine what level of indifference toward its citizens a government must reach when they put playing basketball above reuniting families. The arrogance of rejecting the basic notions of humanity and clear and obvious medical documentation goes against the scientific and moral principles that mandated this shutdown in the first place.

If the government believes its behavior will have no wider consequences than negatively affecting Israelis who are meeting obligations overseas, they are mistaken. They only need to look only as far back to the rescue flights, when the government gave EL AL the sole tender to fly in and out of Israel.

The government had to quickly backtrack under threat that the US would refuse all Israeli flights.

There may be a time in the not too distant future when Israelis want to go to America and will be forbidden entry because Israeli Pfizer vaccines are not the same as American Pfizer vaccines, or the antibody tests done in Israel are not accurate because they were not done in the US.

I hope if that happens, the US government will not be as indifferent to the suffering of its citizens.