The beginning of the vaccination campaign is first our long way back to normal • But in some areas, the epidemic has forced us to find solutions - and now we must not go back
10 months after the first corona case was discovered in Israel, the beginning of the vaccination campaign marks the coming of the end, and the impression is that in a moment the plague is behind us and life will return to normal.
We can return to conduct ourselves in typical Israeliness - shake hands, give slaps, hug.
We can return to movie theaters, soccer fields, theaters and cultural halls, restaurants and cafes, schools and universities, planes and buses, crowded markets and malls, birthdays and parties.
Photo: Moshe Ben Simhon
The feeling is that we can go back and go on with life right from the point where they stopped somewhere in February 2020. We can lock in the history books the fear that characterized the first days, the panic about alcohol and gloves, and the onslaught on supermarkets trying to get basic groceries.
Remove from memory the apprehension that accompanied each push of the elevator buttons and wake up from the nightmare as if all this had never happened.
But it must not happen, it must not go back.
Because despite the heavy price paid by the thousands of victims of the cursed disease, the hundreds of thousands of patients, and the hundreds of thousands of unemployed, self-employed and business owners - Israel as a country has learned something that is important not to disappear or be forgotten.
And one should not ignore the fact that the corona was able to promote in just a few months processes that without its emergence, would have lasted for many years.
Therefore it is forbidden to go back.
No one wants to stand in line for an hour for a bank clerk again, because it is now possible to make an appointment.
The same goes for mail and in some shops. Even the Hermon site can be reserved and not left the house at 4 in the morning to head the traffic jam. Does anyone want to return to this traffic jam?
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The education system has shown surprising and impressive ability, and has learned that 35 students do not have to be crammed into a classroom - through technology and resourcefulness it is possible to divide a class into groups and teach remotely.
If they managed to teach my first graders to read and write through the zoom, then the sky is the limit.
The pilot may be a bug, because it is done in a hurry and under pressure, but the conclusions from it, together with the tools that have been perfected, should become an integral part of the education system right now.
Not to mention that it is possible to do an entire university degree without entering one auditorium not just at the Open University, thus making the academy accessible to distant and weakened places.
Workplaces have learned that workers can also work from home and this does not hurt productivity.
In many cases even the opposite.
And you can do zoom meetings, and they are even more organized and efficient.
An employee who doesn’t get stuck in an hour-and-a-half traffic jam every morning is obviously less nervous and more productive.
And that’s before we talk about reducing road congestion and air pollution.
We learned, and the hard way (very hard) we progressed decades in less than one year.
Therefore, do not go back.