Knesset committee head disparages lockdown in hearing

The head of a Knesset committee tasked with weighing and approving coronavirus restrictions is speaking out against a fresh lockdown.

Yifat Shasha-Biton (Likud) says hospital heads are against a lockdown and claims that she heard that “no health considerations stand behind the decision to go to a lockdown.”

Knesset Member Yifat Shasha-Biton attends the Education, Culture, and Sports Committee on July 15, 2019. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

“I wish in my heart that somebody will get a hold of themselves and realize that we need to invest in public health, not lock people down,” she says.

Health Ministry officials tell her during the meeting that hospitals are filling up and reaching their breaking point.

At one point, Shasha-Biton claims to have data showing that in one major hospital, 23 percent of deaths marked as coronavirus-related were not caused by the virus.

But the ministry’s Dr. Sharon Elroi shoots her down, telling her that many are dying unnecessarily.

“The virus is spreading and we don’t have control over it. You don’t want to start waving the flag when it’s collapsed, you want to do it before it collapses.”