Risk assessment alongside a smart outline for operating the economy: Lennet magazine presented steps to deal with the current situation • This is how we will get out of the crisis - and learn from the mistakes • Interpretation
See how to proceed with opening the economy carefully
Photo:
Liron Moldovan
As I write this column, the government has approved the continuation of the relief outline.
After a year since the beginning of the corona - what else is left to write?
To get a perspective, I repeated the columns I wrote over the pages of this paper, the position papers of the Association of Public Health Physicians I now head, and was happy to attach to it the recommendations issued by the task force to deal with the coronation of the prestigious medical journal Lancet.
Experts have presented six dimensions in which it is now important to put the emphasis with the introduction of vaccines into our lives, and the all-too-strong desire to reach the “new normal” of dealing with the virus.
These are the main things that are adapted to Israel and the unique situation we are in:
1. Delay in operating scientific knowledge-based interventions increases at the end of human life and quality of life.
We must persevere in risk assessment and reduction while taking proportionate action and understanding that the impact of morbidity is not evenly distributed among the populations.
2. The risk of infection is greater inside enclosed spaces.
We must act much more actively to create means that will enable activity in open spaces.
Access to nature and parks and even outdoor prayer are safer activities.
I must say that the most impressive prayers I can remember, including now during the Purim period, are the ones that are held outside.
We live in a country with a temperate climate and with all the rains still studies and other activities can be done outside, we need to prepare for this and allow much more activity on the part of the local authorities and the various communities.
Netanyahu: "Strive to open the entire economy in April" // Photo: GPO
3. Corona infection risks are not evenly distributed.
Today, it is clear to everyone that the vaccine conclusively protects against serious illness and death.
The data collected in the State of Israel by the Ministry of Health and the HMOs clearly show this;
The protection is not only for the individual but also at the community level.
But the vaccine does not protect perfectly and still need to adhere to the rules and especially not to congregate.
The introduction of the green label will make it possible to hold various events in a supervised manner and return us to a new routine.
4. The cost of continuing to close schools is severe - schools must continue to open.
The question is not whether to open but how.
The “Protect Education” program and other creative ways of teaching, including outdoors, are the order of the day.
This is true not only for schools but also for universities which can open gradually using the green dot.
5. The economic crisis is also a crisis of public health.
Public health is not facing the economy, unemployment also has a significant impact on public health, morbidity and life expectancy.
It remains to be seen how to proceed with the opening of the economy carefully along with the tools mentioned above.
Pilot bracelets begin at Ben Gurion Airport // Reporter: Shimon Yaish, Photo: Moshe Ben Simhon
Airports are a weak point in transmitting the virus and with an emphasis on variants, but they cannot be left closed forever.
The Association of Public Health Physicians has proposed a combined outline of tests before and after returning to Israel.
A professional epidemiological unit with skilled means and manpower must be established, which will deal not only with airports but also with land crossings and seaports.
It is not possible that the citizens of the State of Israel will not be able to return to Israel, especially in light of the upcoming elections.
The past year has indeed been a mirror in front of society in Israel and around the world.
It is in our hands to emerge strengthened from the crisis.
Only if we learn to learn from the mistakes and bravely present the full conception of public health, a conception that considers health not only statistics but first and foremost human beings, wherever they are.
Let’s get vaccinated as an act of social solidarity, but remember that the next few months are still a test period that will require efforts and integration between the various factors to continue life in the corona routine.
Prof. Nadav Davidovich is the director of the School of Public Health at Ben-Gurion University, and a member of the expert cabinet of Magen Israel.