Dear world: Bennett misled you on Israel's COVID-19 success at UN - analysis

• Published date: 29 September 2021
• Author: MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN

There was an enemy (the virus), a hero (Bennett) and a clear plot: the coronavirus is "sweeping the world," the "State of Israel is on the frontlines" and, thanks to the country's breakthrough policy fusing the "wisdom of science with the power of policy-making" Israel is on course to win.

But when it comes to COVID-19, there is no happy ending – even in Israel.

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In the last two months, more than 1,200 Israelis have died of COVID-19, compared to only 266 in the four months between April and July – nine times as many per month on average.

Bennett took office in June. Israel began its frantic third shot booster campaign on August 1, a campaign it opened to anyone over 12 who was vaccinated at least five months prior on August 29.

Today, Israeli hospitals are collapsing, in some cases unable to provide even reasonable care to the over 600 serious COVID-19 patients who fill their wards. Medical staff are suffering from post-traumatic stress and exhaustion. And there are neither enough heart-lung ECMO machines nor people trained to operate them.

Israel aspires to the Talmudic value that "whoever saves one life, is as if he saved an entire world," Bennett said.

But the data indicates that it is not succeeding.

After a year in which Israel kept students home for fear of spreading the virus, Bennett's government chose to open schools on time. He told the UN about his decision to require parents to test their children with rapid antigen tests before the first day in order to catch asymptomatic cases in advance and keep children out of isolation.

On the one hand, it worked. The rapid antigen tests taken by students on August 31 caught 8,000 cases of the virus, the Education Ministry said, and it kept about 180,000 students out of isolation. It also saved the country the cost of some 360,000 PCR tests and the money that would have been lost from parents who were forced to stay home with their quarantined kids.

On the other hand, more than 150,000 Israeli children ended up in isolation in the month of September alone. School started on September 1 and due to the Jewish holidays there were only six to nine actual school days in mainstream schools, depending on the age and the institution.

Israel is piloting a "Green Class" program, but thus far it has only been tried in a handful of schools.

The model works as follows: When positive...