Doctors union head: Keeping borders open could help Israel fight spread of virus

Israel should review its coronavirus-combating border restrictions, the head of a large doctors’ union has urged.

The official, Hagai Levine, told The Times of Israel on Sunday that rules against visitors from a slew of European and Asian countries “should be reconsidered,” arguing that open borders may actually help to fight the spread of the virus.

This is not the first time that Levine has been at odds with the government’s direction. Early in the outbreak he accused Health Minister Yaakov Litzman of taking public policy steps in a bid for media attention ahead of the March 2 election.

Levine, chairman of the Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians and an epidemiologist at Hebrew University’s Braun School of Public Health, made his latest comments as the government debates whether to expand border restrictions. On Saturday, the director-general of the Health Ministry, Moshe Bar Siman-Tov, indicated that Israel was about to place restrictions on flights arriving from some parts of the US.

Levine said: “We need to shift our focus from the borders to preventative measures in Israel, including isolation of patients and understanding that our focus should be on the prevention of transmission in Israel.”

He said there is an urgent need for widespread segregated clinics for people who suspect they may have coronavirus. Symptoms of coronavirus can be very similar to those of other illnesses, and he argued that more Israelis who feel unwell should be subjected to coronavirus tests — regardless of whether they had contact with people who were abroad. “We should enlarge the number of lab tests,” he said.

Levine claimed that a misconception has arisen that people are safe from the virus if they don’t remember being in contact with anyone who was abroad. “At the moment we focus on those carrying it from abroad, but we should realize it is not just something that comes from abroad,” he said.

He thinks that as the virus has been passed in some documented cases — and, he suspects, others — to Israelis who haven’t traveled anywhere, entry restrictions may be futile. “If it’s already ‘in,’ better to open borders, in order to keep the economy running,” he said.

Levine argued that open borders could allow Israel to respond better to the coronavirus by ensuring that experts and supplies needed to fight the virus can easily reach the country.

Levine said that his views were in line with some important voices internationally, including in the World Health Organization. Margaret Harris, a WHO spokeswoman who is involved in the COVID-19 response, told The Intercept news site: “You divert a lot of resources when you are focused on closing borders, rather than focusing on protecting your health workers, preparing your health systems, and enhancing your disease surveillance. You mistakenly think, ‘Oh, we closed our borders. We’re fine.’”

The Israeli government has defended all measures put in place, including border restrictions. Dr. Asher Shalmon, the Health Ministry’s director of international relations, said during a press briefing on Thursday: “The closure is bad but we are afraid that the alternative is worse.”