Back in July 2020, Prof. Matteo Bassetti, the head of the Infectious Diseases Clinic of the San Martino-IST University Hospital in Italy, created a storm of hope with his declaration that COVID had become less dangerous than before.
“In March the virus was a tiger, now it is a wild cat that can be domesticated,” the Italian expert said, sparking a worldwide tsunami of hope.
Since Bassetti’s statement, a lot of water has passed under the bridge.
As time went on, the original pathogen was replaced with the British variant, which was then superseded by the current Delta variant from India.
Infection waves around the world rose and fell time and time again, all while millions perished from the pathogen.
Reality proved Bassetti wrong. Yet the search for encouraging signs that our lives will soon return to routine has never ceased.
That is the nature of hope, which is now found in Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s pleas to those fully vaccinated Israelis over 60 to get the third booster shot of the vaccine.
His hope that a third jab will diminish the virality of the pathogen in Israel is most likely misplaced.
The fact that the decision was made without the approval of global experts and with a total lack of information about the booster’s efficacy does not bode well.
It only serves to show the government's helplessness in the face of the evolutionary leap of the violent and contagious Delta variant, and the difficulty of dealing with it by other, more difficult and drastic means, whose effectiveness has already been proven.
Giving the third jab to the elderly population is a reasonable decision under the current conditions, as it could serve to strengthen the immune system of the most vulnerable population with an estimated minimum risk.
The health system believes that even if the booster doesn't help, it certainly won’t cause harm. A prognosis that, incidentally, that has yet to be proven.
The constant national deliberations on this step, however, are certainly dangerous and harmful. For they divert the attention of both the decision makers and the public from what truly needs to be done to halt the pathogen’s spread.
You don’t need to be a nuclear scientist to see that Israel has tumbled into yet another wave of the pandemic.
Recent data show the number of daily cases is increasing exponentially each week, while the number of patients in critical condition is also rising.
The current spread rate of the virus now requires far more severe measures to halt it than those that were sufficient only a few weeks ago, when the current wave was only beginning.
Bennett himself also understands this. On Friday it was revealed that the prime minister plans to impose a “short, effective and tightened" closure in order to effectively reduce infections, if the stress on the health system continues to mount.
But the announcement of this extreme measure neglected to add that a “short and tightened” closure is only effective at the relative beginning of the outbreak, when the virus’ spread isn’t quite as widespread as it is now.
Once the public, including the tens of thousands of carriers, are all locked in, the disease will spread within each household until it consumes itself. In such a scenario the pathogen can indeed be eliminated, but it will take weeks, meaning a “short, tightened” closure will not be enough.
The second decision that was announced was the imposition of preventive measures based solely on the number of hospitalized patients, all while ignoring the rising number of verified and serious patients.
Such a decision will condemn us all to pay the price for the ongoing failure to properly respond to the fourth wave.
Waiting until the health system finally collapses in order to safeguard our daily routine will paradoxical lead to the most prolonged and harshest measures, which will ultimately cause the most harm to our way of life.
Bennett’s “coalition of change” has been trumpeting the slogan of “living with the pathogen” on a loop for the last few days. This cannot be an excuse for the government to rest on its laurels.
The welcome decision to try and live alongside the virus necessitates massive, widespread efforts to keep the contagion rate under control in order for us to be able to maintain our health, sanity and livelihood in our current pandemic-stricken world.
The current decision to postpone the implementation of the necessary measures - such as the enforcement of the mask mandate, banning all social gatherings, a more stringent Green Pass, abolishing all exemptions from quarantine and halting all foreign travel - does not make any sense and is actually immoral.
It doesn't make sense because our wriggle room is almost gone. If we do not hit the brakes with all our might today, a fourth closure is inevitable.
It is immoral because it creates a false sense of normalcy, which will ultimately only serve to fool the people as they strive to return to routine.
You can fool some of the people some of the time, but the virus is not for turning.