Doctors union head says Netanyahu shouldn’t be ‘sowing panic’ over coronavirus

The head of a doctors union criticizes Prime Minister Netanyahu for saying any Israeli who recently returned from abroad and has symptoms of COVID-19 should immediately contact the Magen David Adom ambulance service.

“The role of the prime minister is to lead calmly, responsibility and cautiously and to refrain from sowing panic,” Dr. Hagai Levine of the Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians tweets.

Levine, an epidemiologist with the Hadassah School of Public Health, says Netanyahu’s comments are “wrong” and contradict Health Ministry guidelines and the recommendations of professionals.

“This should be corrected as soon as possible in order not to mislead the public,” he says.

Levine also addresses Netanyahu’s claim that a service launched by the Magen David Adom ambulance service to test people at their homes for the virus was likely the first of its kind in the world.

“The corona[virus] home testing service is not the first in the world but is rather in fact in practice in accordance with a similar model in England that has been already operating for a few weeks,” he says.

Levine had earlier criticized Health Minister Yaakov Litzman’s conduct in regards to Israel’s efforts to prevent the coronavirus from spreading.

In his comments earlier today, made during a visit to Magen Adom David’s coronavirus operations center in Jerusalem, Netanyahu defended Israel’s response to the novel virus.

“As soon as the coronavirus appeared, I determined a policy of over-preparation, not under-preparation, for the State of Israel. There was criticism of this but I thought, and still think, that an overly cautious policy is the correct one,” he said.