After the leadership's failure to deal with the corona, the eyes are on the consequences of the hermetic closure - followed by the National Headquarters for amputating the contagion chains.
"Oak Headquarters" for amputating the contagion chains, in the Home Front Command
Photography:
Oren Cohen
Israel received the score "failed" this week in dealing with the corona plague.
The general closure that the state entered over the weekend is an admission that all the ideas have run out and all the ways to reduce the morbidity have been exhausted, and there is no other way but to lock us all in the house for a considerable time.
To this failure many fathers.
From the government that did too little and too late and with too much politics on the way, to the citizens who just tweeted about the guidelines.
Demonstrations and synagogues can be endlessly debated, but the simple fact is that Israelis have lost faith.
In leadership, in disease and in one another.
The result is utter contempt, which has led to a sharp rise in infections.
This is evidenced by the data revealed yesterday in "Israel Today", according to which about 41 percent of the debtors in isolation violated the guidelines in one day this week.
This is a result of poor publicity (which caused many not to fear the disease), of poor enforcement (the police reach only half a percent of the isolated on an average day), of non-deterrent fines (NIS 5,000, much lower than the world), of loss of trust in leadership On its elected representatives and advisers), and of a general feeling that "it will be all right" (which according to the infection data from the last few days seems to be deprived of any foundation).
These figures are known to the government.
And not just them.
The situation is far worse than it is explained to the public.
These are not just the dry numbers of the infected, the isolated, the seriously ill and the dead.
These are also not just the graphs and models that teach what will happen in such and such days and weeks.
The main problem is that something very basic is broken among the citizens of the country.
Trust, as mentioned, is the key word, and with it values such as social solidarity and mutual guarantee.
All of these - which are at the heart of Judaism and Israeliness, which have successfully stood the test of wars and terrorist attacks (and also in the first wave of the Corona) - are now collapsing before our eyes.
The dry data shows that the man right in his eyes will do: a wedding, a funeral, a party or anything else.
Large sections of the Israeli public do not give their opinion on the consequences of their actions, or simply do not care.
The most astonishing evidence of this is in the information provided by Israelis in epidemiological investigations.
This is the most critical component in the effort to interrupt the adhesive chains.
Each infected person is questioned shortly after being found positive to Corona, and is supposed to provide full information on anyone who has been in contact with him.
In this way it will also be possible to put them in immediate isolation and test them, and if they are also positive - isolate and test everyone who was in contact with them, and so on.
A special strain of infections
The more extensive and faster the set of investigations, the more people will be able to isolate people and reduce the circle of exposure to Corona.
Therefore, a huge effort is now being made to increase it, from 30 nurses who worked at the beginning under the Ministry of Health and summarized the investigations in handwriting, to 2,400 researchers who will work at the end of next month under an advanced computer system.
But all this array will be worth nothing if the respondents - the patients in Corona - do not discover the whole truth and nothing but the truth, as is customary in the American courts.
This is the situation in the world: data collected show that the average infected person was in contact with more than 10 people, and effective investigation can lead to as many as 18-40 contacts.
Brigadier General Nissan Davidi // Photo: Oren Cohen
But in Israel, it turns out, there is a special strain.
According to data from last Monday, out of thousands of epidemiological investigations carried out that day, many provided partial or false information.
13.4 percent said they had been in contact with more than 10 people in the days leading up to their diagnosis of coronary heart disease;
22.4 percent said they were in contact with 5-9 people;
43.2 percent said they were in contact with 1-4 people;
And 21 percent said they had no contact with anyone.
How did they get infected then?
God has the solutions.
This Israbluff is now exploding inside all of us.
Those who did not report truth in the epidemiological investigations probably wanted to protect family members, friends or co-workers, but they only did them harm: health, by endangering them and their family members in the endless chain of disease;
And economically, in that instead of putting them in point isolation they imposed on them (and on all of us) a full closure.
If this false virus does not pass, the health virus will not be defeated even in the current closure.
This should be the core of the government's business now: to plan the day after in the health aspect comes the flu of winter, in the economic aspect, but also in the explanatory aspect.
The last few months have taught us that the Israelis have not internalized that we are at war.
Had we internalized, we would not have slipped from the top of the global table of countries that are successfully tackling the corona, to its bottom.
"Workers without papers"
Very late, part of the same administrative failure of the government, the National Headquarters was established to cut off the chains of infection, or in its military name "Oak Headquarters".
The fact that it was not established from the beginning would be of interest to commissions of inquiry or political clashes, or both.
The responsibility for this rests with the government, but the IDF could (and should) have shouted louder and demanded responsibility.
The headquarters, as it is called, is designed to cut off the contagion chains.
Its establishment was decided in early August, and this week it was declared operational.
On November 1, she will be fully qualified, with all the capabilities, but even now she is giving a good output and mostly doing what has been so lacking until now: order in a hurry.
Brigadier General Nissan Davidi (49) was appointed head of the headquarters. In his previous position, Davidi was the head of the logistics division in the IDF, and before that the logistics officer of the Northern Command and the Home Front Command and of the Galilee Division.
He is married and a father of three, and lives in Moshav Shavei Zion.
He was already on release leave when he received the offer to take on the role.
"I consulted with the family. I told them in advance that there would be a unanimous decision. If even one of them objected - I would be released," he says.
To his surprise, everyone urged him to take on the task.
His youngest son told him that no one would stand up to her better than him.
"When he finished talking, I went to the room and burst into tears."
The first step was team building.
Under him were appointed six colonels.
Chief of Staff, AGM officer and four center commanders: the testing center, the sampling and transport center, the contact investigation center (epidemiological investigations) and the isolation center.
Most of the commanders, even at the lower ranks, are those who have retired from the IDF in recent years. Many of them have experience in the worlds of logistics and management, which are at the core of the new headquarters' work. For a task.
Although mostly engaged in civilian life, the headquarters is military for all intents and purposes.
Davidi sees this as an advantage: in order, in logic, in clarity of instructions and execution.
"There are no papers in the Ministry of Health," he says.
"You come to a meeting or a discussion, and if you do not remember what was said at the end - it is as if it did not happen. No one puts out a summary or a memoir of things."
There is no, he is quick to clarify, no criticism of the Ministry of Health.
Only that he lacks, to quarrel with them now.
"I do not judge them. That is the way they worked, but we work differently. Our profession in the military is to run large systems in emergencies. This is the world in which we specialize."
Not everyone works in orders
Since the establishment of Alon Headquarters, more than 150 working papers have been written, each of which is monitored and monitored.
This includes documents that one can only pluck hairs and wonder how it is that they were not written even though it has been half a year since the corona came into our lives.
For example, clear instructions on how to divide the tests and samples between the various factors, or how to work in front of the laboratories, or - most of all - how to prepare for the winter around the corner.
Every morning at nine, Davidi shows up - physically or through the zoom - to assess the daily situation led by corona projector Roni Gamzo.
Gamzo is one of his two professional facilitators, along with the director general of the Ministry of Health, Hezi Levy. The two outline the policy, mainly through the head of the public health unit, Sharon Elrai.
But not all issues have someone telling him what to do.
It's part of the rush.
The Ministry of Health has four dedicated desks: for the ultra-Orthodox, the Arabs, the general public and the education system.
Davidi was required to prioritize them himself.
In a world where every sector takes care of itself, it produces quite a bit of friction.
The way to solve them, he says, is in dialogue, in headquarters inside he has no problem;
It's an army, and the army is carrying out orders.
But most of his work is with the civilian sector, where orders have no value.
Whatever does not come in handy, just will not come.
That is why Davidi summoned all his partners to him, from the very beginning.
The directors of the health funds, the government ministries, the Israel Police and the GSS, and anyone who can only help (or may set foot).
Most of them are now sitting with him in the Knesset, taking part in the effort. Every working day ends with a written order of what to do tomorrow: how many tests and where, which samples will be transferred to which laboratories, who to sample and who to investigate.
The results, meanwhile, are not good.
The responsibility has not yet been handed over to him in full, but the worries have.
He is troubled by publicity, and troubled by enforcement.
I wish the Israelis were telling the truth, but it turns out they were not, he says, referring to the interrogees' reports.
"I told the prime minister that until I came here I did not know we were a people of loners. There are people who fell ill without seeing anyone. It is a miracle."
He does not change the Israeli character.
The investigations he believes yes.
The set up should make the difference.
It currently employs 1,400 researchers.
The number will increase in the coming weeks, including hundreds of regular soldiers who will operate under the "Ella" unit.
It will be headed by Chief Education Officer Brigadier General Ophir Levius.
Levios lost his leg in operations in the Gaza Strip, but continued to serve.
When he was given the job - to help cut off the contagion chains - he said that the IDF had adapted armament for the purpose because he understood the cuts well.
Victory and not a third closure
The national capacity today is to perform about 50,000 samples every day, about 60,000 tests in laboratories and transport about 50,000 samples to laboratories.
Davidi wants that number doubled by November 1: to reach 100,000 samples and 100,000 laboratory tests.
To this end, the Ministry of Defense conducted a quick tender to carry out the tests.
The two winning civilian companies (Electra and Ilex medical) will perform about 10,000 tests each day.
Together with My Heritage, which performs about 20,000 tests a day, and with the laboratories in the health funds and hospitals, the goal of 100,000 will be achieved.
The next tender was for the sampling.
MDA, which did not approach him, is expected to appeal its results and the very intention to carry it out. At Alon headquarters, it is hoped that this will not delay the project: with winter upon us, and the impact that will come with it, it is a matter of souls.
The fear is that many citizens who get the flu will think they are sick in Corona, and will be sent for a sample.
This will put a strain on the system, waste expensive testing and make it difficult to detect the true carriers of the corona.
The solution that has been found is to allow the health funds to perform about 40,000 corona tests a day, for those who discover symptoms of illness.
An additional 8,000 tests will be performed daily for seniors in nursing homes, and another 4,000 sample tests at yeshivas and the education system.
The rest of the tests, about 50,000, will serve as an arm of the epidemiological investigation system, in order to cut off the chains of infection.
This is how it should work: Anyone who is positive about Corona will receive an interrogated phone call within two hours.
The interrogation will take about an hour, and another three hours to interrogate the people who came in contact with him.
Within an additional 12 hours all additional contacts will be sampled, and another 12 hours will elapse until the results of their tests are obtained.
A total of 30 hours, instead of the average five days the process currently takes.
The investigation will be conducted on a uniform form, which did not exist until now.
It will be computerized, and will be accessible to all parties.
Each investigator will conduct an average of two investigations per day.
He will put the contacts in immediate isolation and report this to the police online, and he will also coordinate a check-in date for them on the spot.
The computer system that is supposed to enable all this is now being set up by the ICT Division and Unit 8200. Along the way, it will move the public health world in Israel from the days of the British Mandate to the high-tech era.
Davidi is convinced that the success of this lineup "will bring about change, and allow us to win."
But in the same breath he warns that at current morbidity levels, the system he leads has no chance of succeeding.
This is the purpose of the closure, which is supposed to reduce the extent of morbidity to reasonable numbers.
Only there - around 1,000 new infections a day - will Alon Headquarters begin to be effective, and there will also be a test tube: to keep low morbidity levels ahead of winter and flu, to prevent Israel from entering a third closure.
