While the whole world is following the spread of the omicron strain and expecting data on its degree of danger, the importance of raising the vaccination rate of the population against corona is increasing.
Europe, which is currently at the height of a new wave of disease in Corona, is grappling with the question of how to raise the vaccine rate.
The lessons learned in Israel in dealing with the fourth wave were not applied on the continent, including the decision to give the impulse dose, which led to the truncation of the fourth wave in Israel and a change in the face of the disease - from vaccinated adults to lowered immunity.
The increase in morbidity, along with the relatively low response of the population to vaccination, forced some European countries to apply more aggressive policies - from a ban imposed on non-vaccinated people in Austria to a general closure due to the jump in disease, through the imposition of vaccination on people aged 60 and over The residents, who are currently being tried in Germany.
They are all democracies, which understand that a fundamental change is needed in dealing with the non-vaccinated.
In Israel, the situation is different.
Along with a relatively high rate of vaccinated, more than a million Israelis still did not receive the boost and about 600,000 were not vaccinated at all.
The State of Israel can not afford to return to a total closure and again suffer severe damage to the economy, society and students who will be forced to return to studying zoom.
Unfortunately, the outreach activities of the best experts from the beginning of the plague to the present day do not affect anyone who refuses to listen.
At the same time, irresponsible people, including doctors and scientists, are spreading false information and intimidating some of the population.
The Ministry of Health must confront these doctors with the facts and take disciplinary measures against those among them, who justify through unfounded information the refusal to get vaccinated.
Anyone who decides not to get vaccinated must remember that he is endangering not only himself but also his family and the entire population.
Studies from Israel, including the Sheba Medical Center, have found that vaccines are less contagious.
It was also found that if vaccinated people become infected anyway, they are at low risk of contracting a serious illness and, no less important, they are also less contagious.
We have also seen this in the field in several cases - one of them when a vaccinated doctor infected with the omicron strain at a conference abroad infected only one vaccinated person in Israel, who was traveling with him in a closed vehicle.
If information and research do not help raise the rate of vaccinators, there is no choice but to consider imposing restrictions on non-vaccinated people - whether by imposing a closure only on them or by raising the health tax.
Similar to the increase in the tax on cigarettes and alcohol, which is intended to encourage the reduction of their use and to finance the costs of the state's treatment of the harms of smoking and drinking, so the increase in the health tax without vaccinators is justified in value and practice.
These days, additional proposals are being made, including expelling civil servants who have not been vaccinated, thereby harming the public they serve.
It will be emphasized that the health system will never give the best care to every person, vaccinated or not, however those who consciously choose not to get vaccinated understand that they must bear the consequences of the burden created on the health system as a result of their choice.
In light of this, practical measures, which include imposing restrictions on the non-vaccinated, are the way to act resolutely against the corona and do justice to the responsible public since the vaccinated.
The author is a Deputy Director of Sheba Medical Center and a member of Corona's Expert Cabinet, former Director General of the Ministry of Health
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