From the Liveblog of
Saturday, June 20, 2020
IDF, Health Ministry said to distance themselves from new report warning of new virus wave
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleThe Israel Defense Forces and the Health Ministry are each reportedly distancing themselves from a report saying Israel could soon see thousands of new coronavirus infections a day and hundreds of deaths if immediate measures aren’t taken to contain the pandemic.
According to the Walla news site, both the IDF and Health Ministry are denying they have responsibility over the Coronavirus National Information and Knowledge Center, which issued the report. They are also both denying leaking it to the media.
Hagai Levine, an epidemiologist who chairs the Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians, criticizes the release of the report, noting it was unsigned.
“It is unprofessional and unserious that reports no one signed are released,” he tells Walla. “There is an information center that is not transparent, and it seems there are no epidemiological doctors there at all. The analysis itself is sometimes unprofessional and sometimes mistaken.”
He also says leading epidemiologists in the country were not being granted access to the data used in drawing up the report.
In separate remarks to Channel 13 news, Levine characterized the release of the report “bizarre.”
“Soldiers in the Intelligence Corps have access to health information that I as the chairman of the Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians can’t access. Where is the transparency?” he said.
The Times of Israel Community.