Coronavirus: Better communication needed in the midst of crisis

What is not needed at times like these – when everyone’s anxiety level is already at fever pitch – are unclear messages from the top.

By JPOST EDITORIAL
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the nation regarding new emergency measures brought in to combat the coronavirus outbreak, March 16, 2020 (photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH 90)
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the nation regarding new emergency measures brought in to combat the coronavirus outbreak, March 16, 2020
(photo credit: YONATAN SINDEL/FLASH 90)
“These are the times,” to quote US revolutionary Thomas Paine in 1776, “that try men’s souls.”
The uncertainty. The dramatic lifestyle changes. The pervasive worry. The kids climbing the walls. The concern about elderly parents. Soul-trying times, indeed.
What is not needed at times like these – when everyone’s anxiety level is already at fever pitch – are unclear messages from the top. These serve not to soothe the situation, but, rather to exacerbate it.
But this week, unfortunately, Israelis have been bombarded with contradictory messages. Take Tuesday, for instance.
In the morning, the country woke to another day where gatherings were restricted to 10 people, workplaces were reduced to skeletal staffs, and people were encouraged – though not ordered – to stay home.
By midday, that changed, with the Health Ministry issuing directives tantamount to placing the country under lockdown: people told not to leave their homes except when absolutely necessary, all stores except supermarkets and pharmacies to be closed, and all direct human contact prohibited with anyone outside of those living under one’s roof.
In the evening, however, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who overall deserves high marks for the way he is managing the crisis – took to the airwaves and said these steps were recommendations, not directives.
So what are they – orders or recommendations? Clarity here is sorely needed.
Netanyahu was followed to the microphone by Health Ministry director-general Moshe Bar Siman Tov, who will surely be forever linked in the public’s mind with the coronavirus, just as Nachman Shai, the IDF spokesman at the time, will always be linked with the 1991 First Gulf War and the falling Scuds.
But whereas Shai, whose soothing mantra was “drink some water,” strove to calm the nation, Bar Siman Tov is hoping to scare it, believing only in this way will the country comply with his ministry’s rapidly changing regulations. He has become the anti-Shai.
“Regardless of what we do, we will see a rise in the number and rate of sick people in Israel,” he warned. “We will see a hundred new sick people a day, perhaps hundreds, and ultimately there will be those who die from the disease. Unfortunately, thousands in Israel might die from it.”
Scary words. But are they for real, or a means to frighten people into compliance?
In China, the epicenter of the plague and a land of some 1.4 billion people, just over 3,200 people (at least according to the official count) have died, and China is believed to be past the worst of it. So is it reasonable to think that in Israel, a country of 9.1 million people, thousands will die?
Bar Siman Tov might be right, but because of conflicting interests – the Health Ministry wanting to close everything down to prevent the collapse of the health system, and the Finance Ministry wanting to keep as much open as possible to prevent the collapse of the economy – dueling messages are emerging.
What the country needs now is one government spokesman who – on a daily basis – can gather all the information from the relevant bodies and relay the directives to the public in an orderly, calm manner.
The present situation, where Netanyahu addresses the nation each night and delivers a new menu of measures, falls short on two counts. First, because – as was the case on Tuesday – his message is not always in line with the guidelines put out by the Health Ministry. And second, because he takes no questions.
This is a national emergency. And in a time of a national emergency, it is incumbent upon the prime minister not only to address the public, but also to allow the public to ask questions. The media represent the public, and should be given the opportunity to ask Netanyahu questions about an issue that he himself has characterized as one of life and death.
Even if, as he should, Netanyahu appoints a spokesman to communicate regularly with the public, the prime minister himself should convene a real press conference where not only could he deliver the message he wants, but where he would also be asked to address issues about the government’s management of the crisis that he might prefer to avoid, but which are very much on people’s minds.