When there is a lot of uncertainty, and the nature of the threat is unclear, caution is required. This statement is not controversial, and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett would probably have agreed with it just a few short months ago. If you don't know what's behind the closed door, and you are suspicious, you better not open it before you know more.
In a few days, we will know if the Omicron wave has reached its peak, if the number of severe COVID patients is decreasing, and maybe we will even know more about the initial uncertain and vague reports about children's hospitalization due to PIMS, a rare systemic illness involving persistent fever and extreme inflammation following exposure to SARS-CoV-2.
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Israeli political leaders scramble while fighting Omicron wave
(Photo: Yotam Fishbain)
The government should have been the first, especially the education and health ministries, to say let's wait before proposing such a reckless policy like scrapping compulsory coronavirus quarantine for schoolchildren. At least when it comes to children under the age of five, who can't get vaccinated.
In addition, there is an initial data from the Health Ministry itself that showed a considerable gap in immunity levels between vaccinated and unvaccinated children. At least in the first two months, the chance for the unvaccinated children to contract the virus is four times higher than their jabbed compatriots, which makes them more contagious.
Isn't this fact alone worth reevaluation of the policy on compulsory quarantine?
The truth is the government is scared. It is afraid of public anger over mass, Omicron-induced quarantines, endless COVID testing and pandemic restrictions. And you can understand why, the general feeling is that the pandemic is coming to an end.
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Quarantine for schoolchildren is set to be canceled on Thursday as the number of severe patients in Israel reaches its peak
(Photo: Hadassah Medical Center)
All those, however, who believe the pandemic is over, that it is "just like the flu," are not familiar with all the data, but they still keep pushing the government into the corner, urging it to announce that the pandemic is behind us.
The health experts, on the other hand, know very well that after the Omicron wave reaches its peak, the number of infected will remain high for awhile before it will start to decline.
No one really has an idea, not even Bennet or former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, how many people have actually been infected with COVID since the start of the Omicron wave in Israel. More importantly, no one knows when the number of seriously ill patients, which as of Wednesday morning stands at 888, will begin to drop.
The ministers only know how to give out aid packages and ease restrictions, sometimes with backing of health experts whom say the morbidity is going to surge with or without restrictions, at this point. Furthermore, some of the hospital directors completely support the political administration, and this has a significant effect.
There are still, however, many health experts who recommend limiting public gatherings, but their opinion is being ignored, and likely won't even be considered as long as the number of seriously ill stands at less than 1,200.
And what would Bennett say about the current government if he was in the Opposition? Exactly what Opposition leader Netanyahu said on Tuesday. "The government gave up on the fight against COVID and on the lives of the citizens of Israel." But it doesn't really matter, because Netanyahu said those things out of his own interests, that's how the Opposition always works, regardless of who is heading it.
The real question is whether this government, which tries to paint a rosy picture of the current infection wave, has not become completely disconnected from the glum reality.
So, let's join our government in hoping that we have reached the endgame of this infection wave. But let's also remember that hope is not a policy. It was true for the former government and it is also true for the current one.