Professor Dror Mevorach warns in an interview with Israel Today: "The heads of the public system do not internalize the situation - the state is not acting fast enough, and at this rate the hospitals will collapse" • "Already the situation is very bad, and everyone can guess what will happen in Corona Spreads parallel to the flu "
Is Israel successfully coping with the outbreak of the corona virus in Israel, or is the deterioration that is currently being seen only a trailer for a situation that could be much worse?
This question is exacerbated after the start of the school year last week and as the winter season approaches, in which Israel will have to deal with a combination that could be particularly deadly - that of the corona and the flu epidemic.
Photo: Moshe Ben Simhon, Yoni Rickner, Shmuel Buharis, Gil Kramer
To answer this question, we turned to Professor Dror Mevorach, director of the corona department of Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem, who expresses great concern about the direction in which the State of Israel is heading.
"From August 20 until now there has been a 25% increase in critically ill and a 20% increase in respiratory patients. In two weeks we will see another such increase and in four weeks we will see another such increase," said the senior doctor, who presented a particularly gloomy vision of Israel's situation in the Corona. .
"In fact, in the current reality, the plays we saw in northern Italy and New York at the height of the plague will happen in the country as well."
The problem of the Israeli mentality
When asked why Israel might reach a situation from which he warns, Prof. Mevorach says that the combination of the Israeli slowness and the mentality of the public in the country, which does not obey instructions together with the density of the population in Israel, is a particularly bad combination.
"The country is not working fast enough. It took about a month and a half to appoint a Corona commissioner. Now Prof. Roni Gamzo works around the clock, endlessly and at a peak pace, but he has found a system that does not match the emergency. They knew from February that the epidemic was on its way. "Investigations and interrupt the chain of infections? What have they done from February until now? How can they not have understood the magnitude of the emergency? It is very worrying."
Prof. Mevorach attacked the corona cabinet, which was delayed in approving Gamzo's "traffic light plan", which he claimed took too long - and even then, he said, "its wings were cut off."
He says that "it seems that the heads of the public system are not internalizing the situation properly and the fact that at this rate the hospitals will collapse. People will not receive treatment, people will die, people will not be treated properly."
To the slowness of the system, Prof. Mevorach adds two more critical problems for Israel.
"Beyond difficulty and slowness, Israelis do not conduct themselves as disciplinedly as in Europe and the United States. There are weddings, there are events, here an ambassador's wedding, there another event, people conduct themselves as if they are on the moon or as if there is no plague," the professor attacks the Israeli public.
"People do not wear masks on their faces. The adults are indeed guarded, but the young ones in some congregate and huddle, and all in a bad way. Even public leaders do not set a good example, as they are not constantly seen with masks."
"The general message here is not good. It is a message of indiscipline, and it helps the virus to erupt even further. We would have filled Sweden where there is no population density like ours, but the ultra-Orthodox and Arab cities are very crowded. A bad deed, but that's the situation, "he says.
"All of this is well seen in the samples. The percentage of positive tests today stands at between nine and ten percent each day, and unfortunately that does not predict a good situation down the road."
And what happens when the flu virus arrives?
"I do not want to be a prophet of rage, but everyone knows for themselves what happened in places in the world where the system collapsed. Doctors will continue to work, try to treat people, but already now the situation is very bad, and everyone alone can guess what will happen in a corona spread and flu together. "Everyone understands that the situation is deteriorating very quickly even without the effect, and if we add it to the equation then the reality that can be imagined is very bad."
The deterioration that Prof. Mevorach predicts will be, he says, possible to stop through only one act - a full closure, which should be imposed as soon as possible.
"Only this undesirable possibility currently exists on the table. We need a closure that is being stepped out in a gradual and controlled manner, and not as it was left out the previous time," he concludes.
"Only a full closure can stop the general direction in which the country is clearly and openly deteriorating."
