For the past several weeks, the Jewish state has been among the countries taking the strictest measures to protect against the spread of CORVID-19. Coordinating this response is Moshe Bar Siman-Tov, the director general of the health ministry, who—unlike all of his predecessors—is not a physician but an economist who cut his teeth working for the finance ministry. Haviv Rettig Gur assesses Bar Siman-Tov’s performance thus far:
Israel’s early and vigorous response to the coronavirus outbreak was deemed extreme by many observers. It raised the hackles of Beijing, Seoul, and Rome as their nationals were suddenly, and sometimes without warning, turned back at the airport. Israel did more to limit travel from more countries, and did it faster, than any other nation on earth. By early March, as the scale of the threat grew and governments in Italy and the U.S. were coming under criticism for doing too little, some of the anger at Bar Siman-Tov’s quarantines and air-travel restrictions lessened.
“Barsi,” [as Bar Siman-Tov is known to friends and colleagues], led an aggressive effort to slow the virus’s penetration into Israel—not because he thought he could stop it, but because slowing its spread would prevent overtaxing Israel’s hospitals and health infrastructures. The thinking was sound, health experts said. Israel has only so many respirators and lung specialists, making the death toll from the virus a function not of the number of people who fall ill but of the rate at which they do fall ill.
Slowing the spread could mean the difference between a few hundred dead by the end of the crisis and many thousands or even more who might succumb because hospitals could not treat them properly, and ventilators were in short supply.
Yet there is a price to such caution, even if it is one worth paying:
Several industries that depend on international travel and large gatherings of people—hotels, tour companies, private bus companies, event halls, airlines, conference organizing, caterers—are being devastated by the sudden disappearance of most of their business for the immediately foreseeable future. . . . [T]he virus, and Israel’s response to it, has already disrupted the country’s access to global supply chains, as a significant proportion of imports [would have] arrived in Israel on the now-canceled passenger flights. Suddenly lumber yards can’t get new lumber. Even many tech companies are now firing engineers because they can no longer acquire components for their products from abroad.
Read more on Times of Israel: https://www.timesofisrael.com/meet-barsi-the-ruthless-economist-directing-israels-drastic-virus-fight/