Weekly Commentary: Follow Action Plan: Put Ministry of Defense In Charge of Coronavirus NOW

Thirteen years ago the Ministry of Health issued “The Pandemic Flu Health System Readiness Program 2007”

https://www.health.gov.il/Subjects/emergency/preparation/DocLib/tora/BIO_TORA_PANDEMIC_FLU.pdf

The plan set that following the WHO declaration of stage 5 there is “Transfer of the crisis management responsibility from the Ministry of Health to the Ministry of Defense’s “crisis management team”.”

Stage 5 is defined in the plan as “Significant person to person infection, disease is still local”.

To be clear: “significant morbidity outside Israel” is enough to be in stage 5.

For weeks now we have already been in stage 6 “Pandemic (widespread transfer across the world)” and management of the crisis has yet to be transferred to the Ministry of Defense.

Since the very start of this nightmare, Minister of Defense Naftali Bennett has been dramatically ahead of the pack with his ideas and actions.

Again: According the Ministry of Health’s own action plan, the Ministry of Defense should ALREADY TODAY BE IN CHARGE.

Political or personal considerations must have no place in the decision making process for dealing with this unprecedented challenge.