Virus committee chief: PM should get it together and stop looking for blame

In an extraordinarily strongly-worded admonishment by a Likud official, Knesset Coronavirus Committee chief Yifat Shasha-Biton strikes out at the prime minister, who earlier indicated she was at least partly to blame for the surge in virus cases, due to second-guessing government decisions in recent months.

“I remind the prime minister that he was the one to water down [coronavirus czar] Prof. Gamzu’s traffic-light program until it became useless,” she says on Facebook, in reference to largely aborted plans to set restrictions locally according to infection levels.

Yifat Shasha-Biton at a Housing Ministry ceremony in Jerusalem on May 18, 2020. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

“I am proud of managing to help many business weather the crisis… I suggest that the prime minister get it together and stop looking for blame. It’s time to bolster hospital capacity, create an efficient mechanism to cut the infection chain, enlist the public to the battle… It’s also recommended to set a personal example.

“The prime minister would do well to focus on these, and not in shirking responsibility and slinging mud and filth.”