Ministry of Health, it's time to admit failure

Two years too late, you finally realise that a respiratory virus cannot be beaten and that any such attempt is doomed to failure. You don't admit it because you have admitted almost no mistake in the last two years, but in hindsight it is clear that you have failed miserably in almost everything you have done, and even the media are already struggling to cover up your shame .

You refused to admit that, despite years of observation and scientific knowledge, the infection occurs in waves that subside on their own. You insisted on attributing any decline in a wave solely to your actions, and so you "conquered the plague" through false propaganda. And again you have conquered it, and again and again and again.

You have refused to admit that mass testing is ineffective, even though your own emergency plans explicitly state this ("Pandemic Influenza Health System Preparedness Plan, 2007", p. 26).

They refused to admit that recovery is more protective than a vaccine, even though previous evidence and observations showed that non-recovered vaccinated people are more likely to be infected than recovered people. Despite the observations, you did not want to admit that the vaccinated were infectious. Building on this, you hoped to achieve herd immunity through vaccination - and you failed at that too.

They insisted on ignoring the fact that the disease is dozens of times more dangerous for at-risk groups and older adults than for young people who are not, despite the evidence that came out of China as early as 2020.

They have refused to accept the "Barrington Declaration" signed by more than 60,000 scientists and medical professionals or any other common sense programme. You have chosen to ridicule, slander, distort and discredit them. Instead of the right programmes and people, you have chosen professionals who lack proper training in pandemic management (physicists as top government advisors, veterinarians, security officials, media personnel, etc.).

You have not established an effective system for reporting side effects of the vaccines, and reports of side effects have even been deleted from your Facebook page. Doctors avoid linking side effects to the vaccine so that you do not track them, as you have done with some of their colleagues. You have ignored many reports of changes in menstrual intensity and menstrual cycle times. You have hidden data that would allow for objective and adequate research (e.g. you have removed data on passengers at Ben Gurion Airport). Instead, you have chosen to publish unobjective articles on vaccine efficacy and safety with senior Pfizer executives.

Irreversible damage to trust

However, from the height of your hubris, you have also ignored the fact that in the end the truth comes to light. And it is beginning to reveal itself. The truth is that you have brought public confidence in you to an unprecedented low and undermined your status as a source of authority. The truth is that you have burned hundreds of billions of shekels in vain over the last two years - on publicising intimidation, on ineffective testing, on destructive lockdowns and on disrupting everyday life.

They have affected our children's education and their future. They have made children feel guilty, afraid, smoke, drink, become addicted, drop out and fight, as school headmasters across the country attest. They have damaged livelihoods, the economy, human rights, mental health and physical health.

You slandered colleagues who did not surrender to you, you turned people against each other, divided society and polarised the discourse. You branded, without scientific basis, people who chose not to vaccinate as enemies of the public and spreaders of disease. They unprecedentedly promote draconian policies of discrimination, denial of rights and selection of people, including children, for their medical choices. A selection that lacks any epidemiological justification.

If you compare the destructive policies you are pursuing with the sensible policies of some other countries, you can clearly see that the destruction you have caused has only added victims beyond those susceptible to the virus. The economy you have ruined, the unemployment you have caused and the children whose education you have destroyed - they are the excess victims only as a result of your own actions.

There is no medical emergency at the moment, but you have been cultivating such a state for two years out of greed for power, budget and control. The only emergency now is that you are still setting policies and keeping huge budgets for propaganda and psychological engineering instead of instructing them to strengthen the health system.

This state of emergency must stop!

Professor Udi Qimron, Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University