Outgoing health minister accuses director of fear-mongering on virus

Outgoing health minister Yaakov Litzman appears to suggest the Israeli government overreacted to the coronavirus.

“I also thought so, that the panic was overblown, and when the director [of the Health Ministry] said he fears tens of thousands would die, I yelled at the cabinet meeting, in his presence and in the presence of the ministers, that it wouldn’t be. It’s just exaggerated,” Litzman tells the Kan public broadcaster.

“But it doesn’t matter. The prime minister accepted this hyperbole and responded to the fears of the [Health Ministry’s] director [Moshe Bar Siman-Tov], and operated according to that — and I can’t say I have many claims against him, because overall the situation is excellent,” he says, but stresses that just 272 died rather than the tens of thousands predicted.

Litzman himself contracted and recovered from COVID-19. He is now set to take over the Housing Ministry. Bar Siman-Tov has resigned from the Health Ministry.