The plans led by the government commissioner continue to be largely leaked to the media • This conduct does not indicate transparency and credibility as it sought to express at the press conference • Commentary

• Prof. Roni Gamzo at the press conference last night

  Photo: 

  Amos Ben Gershom / GPO

Throughout the press conference with Israel's new corona commissioner, Prof. Roni Gamzo, explicitly or implicitly hovered the Ministry of Health's ongoing and destructive failure in corona examinations and investigations of corona patients - the dimensions of which were first revealed in "Israel Today" by Meital Yasur Beit-Or already in - 19.6.

Prof. Gamzo spoke explicitly about this when he said that "the Ministry of Health has not been able to interrupt the chains of infection", and when he announced that the IDF would take over the corona tests and investigations. This, after months earlier Defense Minister Naftali Bennett demanded it and now refuses. Israel is already in the midst of a difficult and ongoing corona wave.

Photo: GPO

The scandalous failure of the Ministry of Health also resonated immediately after the press conference, when Prof. Gamzo announced that he would not promote the agreement in principle between Minister Edelstein and the ultra-Orthodox leadership, on increasing the number of worshipers allowed to stay together in Tisha B'Av synagogues.

In addition, it was reported on Tuesday that there were those in the Ministry of Health who considered giving the public a partial exemption from wearing masks because of the extreme heat wave this week, even though the exemption from the previous heat wave was one of the factors that severely damaged the Corona fight. These dangerous decisions, which could have been made in the Ministry of Health, show how important the appointment of Prof. Roni Gamzo is and how much there is indeed an urgent need to restore public trust. 

Indeed, according to yesterday's press conference, Prof. Gamzo has the ability to speak sharply, credibly and convincingly and to mobilize the efforts of the government and the IDF. Gamzo also promised that the restrictions imposed on the public would henceforth be with logic and fairness, Badly to glory. 

Lack of reference to "Corona deniers"

However, Prof. Gamzo did not present any orderly and detailed plan for the struggle in Corona yesterday. In fact, most of the programs he leads continue to be leaked to the media in a partial, trending, and context-free manner. This is about the last thing that indicates transparency, reliability, professionalism and public participation. Yesterday, for example, the Marciano Foundation unveiled in News 12 another tier in Prof. Gamzo's emerging plan, according to which local authorities will be given a score according to the extent of the epidemic, which will determine the degree of openness of businesses and cultural events. This is despite the fact that some local authorities have so far discovered very serious failures in their functioning during the corona. 

Beyond that, Prof. Gamzo did not address yesterday a long line of missions that are at the heart of the struggle in Corona. For example, Gamzo did not say a single word about his plan to correct one of the most tragic failures - abandonment of the elderly in nursing homes and nursing homes. Now this is perhaps the most important and moral task - to provide maximum protection for the most severely injured Corona victims. Gamzo even blatantly avoided answering the important question of the value and public disregard for the dozens of new dead.

Prof. Gamzo did not even address the vital struggle in the "corona deniers cult," which includes a handful of doctors and executives who endanger the public on the grounds that "the corona is just the flu." He literally avoided answering a scandalous statement by a senior doctor at Ichilov Hospital, who said that "there was not even a first wave of Corona here." If Prof. Gamzo wants to restore public trust - he will no longer be able to continue to avoid confronting the mindset that he underestimated in Corona, and that, unfortunately, he was also blown away by some senior officials at Ichilov, the hospital he himself runs.