When Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz was caught on a hot mic on Sunday admitting that the “green pass” system is a necessary means of pressuring the public to get vaccinated — and not based on epidemiology — his remarks were treated by Channel 12 as a big scoop. His words were also held up by anti-vaxxers as evidence of the government’s allegedly unjustified coercion.
“We don’t want to do things that have no medical justification,” Horowitz was heard telling Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked, in response to her saying that the restriction on outdoor dining should be lifted. “But I’m telling you that we have a problem. The ‘green pass’ isn’t even being enforced; certainly not in the Arab sector, where it doesn’t exist at all. And I’m seeing the effect on the hospitals.”
At this moment, Intelligence Minister Elazar Stern approached the pair and chimed in, “It’s annoying that they’re taking up the [hospital] beds,” he said.
“Those in intensive care, yes,” added Horowitz.
It’s pretty funny that the exchange caused such a stir. Anyone exposed to the changing regulations as much as to the virus itself knows that his revelation contained both truth and inherent contradictions.
Indeed, Israelis have come to grasp that the only real consensus among health officials these days surrounds the efficacy of inoculation – though some doctors have been questioning the need for or wisdom of a third jab. The rest of the incessant discussions and debates to which we are treated on a daily basis sound like background noise.
We also realize by now that the frequently incomprehensible rules were put in place for those who were likely to follow them. Knocking on an open door is always easier than trying to bang down a closed one, after all.
HOROWITZ IS probably kicking himself while wiping egg off his face for having his honesty aired unwittingly. But the “green pass” and “traffic light” systems are and have been pointless, particularly in a state like Israel.
Let’s not forget that it’s a country whose citizens – Jewish, Arab, haredi, National-Religious or secular – are used to and adept at finding loopholes. This is especially the case when directives appear illogical. Yet even when they make sense, the populace is perfectly content to ignore them.
Israelis of all stripes can be seen puffing away next to “no smoking” signs, for example, or playing Frisbee under “keep off the grass” placards. Ditto for picnickers who leave behind garbage on beaches and in parks, despite admonitions and an abundance of trash cans.
Nevertheless, most of the public rushed to receive the first and second doses of the vaccine, and nearly a third of the population has already been treated to No. 3. It’s not for nothing that Israel is noted for its impressive inoculation drive.
Far less successful, however, has been the attempt by the powers-that-be to strong-arm the anti-vaxxers and “vaccine-hesitant” into changing their beliefs by denying them certain privileges. The death on Monday of prominent anti-vax activist Hai Shoulian is a perfect example of this.
In a video that he posted on Facebook a few days before dying of COVID, Shoulian addressed his followers while attached to a ventilator. Recounting that he “could no longer breathe,” he announced that he’d been poisoned by the Jerusalem Police.
“If anything happens to me, you’ll know it was an assassination attempt,” he informed his fans, who likely bought the conspiracy theory. The notion that such individuals can or will be swayed by the Health Ministry is ludicrous.
The only ones who might be persuaded to alter their previous position on the issue are those lacking firm convictions about it. These include members of the younger generation who consider themselves invincible – as they do whenever they zoom down the highway on motorcycles – or too preoccupied to bother taking a break for an injection.
Others in this category are people who fear the virus and the vaccine in equal measure. Such individuals may possibly be influenced by the chorus of physicians insisting that anyone who experiences side effects from the vaccine would have an even worse reaction to the disease.
It’s hard to know. Anxiety is rarely alleviated by lectures, no matter how rational. As a result, scare tactics about the dangers of the virus are liable to have the opposite of the intended effect.
Another pitfall is the seemingly double message being conveyed from on high. Political and health officials assure us that the vaccine is working, while sounding alarm bells about the rise in infection.
By the time they get around to acknowledging that the graphs are misleading – because there are far fewer critical cases of COVID now than there were before the availability of the vaccine – the skeptics have stopped listening. What a surprise.
I say this as someone who believes that the advent of vaccines in general is a blessing, a first-world privilege envied by impoverished parts of the world. Being acquainted with wheelchair-bound polio victims reminds me of how fortunate my family is to have been spared.
Nor do I worry that the corona vaccine wasn’t sufficiently tested. Instead, I’m amused at peers who think nothing of taking illegal drugs of dubious origin for recreational purposes, yet suddenly concern themselves with the chemical makeup of mRNA. Still, it’s their business.
WHICH BRINGS me to the issue of contagion. The idea behind vaccination is to prevent contraction of the virus, or at least to minimize the danger of variants. It’s undertaken initially for self-protection and ultimately aimed at herd immunity.
Since most Israelis have voluntarily done the former, the latter will eventually ensue. Despite the many who have already died or recuperated from the virus, it is only a matter of time before the objective is achieved.
Meanwhile, those citizens unwilling or unable for medical reasons to take the shots must exercise as much caution as possible to keep themselves safe. Forcing everyone to behave as though he or she is a walking time bomb on the one hand, or a super-spreader on the other, is not a solution. Nor are ridiculous and arbitrary directives, such as the ones that I’ve had to obey this week, following an extended family visit in the United States.
Two days prior to boarding my flight back to Israel, I was required to take and produce a negative PCR test, without which I would not have been allowed on the plane. Upon landing at Ben-Gurion Airport, I had to undergo an additional PCR test before heading home.
Though I received a negative result the following day, the Health Ministry demanded that I be in quarantine for a full week. Only then would I be allowed out of isolation, briefly, to undergo a third PCR test. My release from Netflix captivity and return to society, of course, hinged on a negative result.
Meanwhile, I received several notices from my HMO urging me to come in for a third shot. I wasn’t at liberty to comply, however, due to my virtual house arrest. Talk about a mixture of irony and idiocy.
Being embarrassingly obedient, I adhered to the letter of the law. As I told friends who pointed out that since no official body had checked to see whether I was where I was supposed to be – which meant that I could probably risk a trip to my mailbox – Murphey’s Law is always lurking. And I really didn’t wish to pay a NIS 5,000 (about $1,600) fine if and when apprehended.
Horowitz doesn’t warrant a reprimand over his inadvertent exposé. What he deserves is to be called to task for bad decisions, based on false premises.
Following the hot mic debacle, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett announced to the cabinet that tolerance toward those who choose not to get vaccinated has come to an end. He would do well to take into account that the vaccinated public’s patience is wearing just as thin with his government’s methods.