Former Defense Minister Naftali Bennett addressed the prime minister on Sunday, following the announcement that Netanyahu was reducing the epidemiological testing time to 48 hours. " Prime Minister, it's not enough to tell people what to do. You ordered 30,000 tests over a two-week period in March, and nothing ended up getting done." Bennett outlined a list of 15 steps that must be taken for the government to be able to overcome the crisis. 1. Recruit 2,500 medical students and train them to conduct epidemiological testing. Cancel the restriction allowing only registered nurses to perform the examinations. 2. Allow private companies to perform vaccine testing. Create incentives for this. 3. Apply the 'Weizmann Institute 2.0' method for testing, allowing 70,000 tests to be carried out within a short period of time. 4. Reopen 'Corona Hotels', and send virus patients there unless there are extenuating circumstances. At the moment, patients are forced to quarantine at home! 5. Establish an emergency system and assign a project manager. There's no such thing at the moment. The Ministry of Health offers high-level professionals but these are regulators—not executives. I'd recommend turning it over to the IDF, but it could also be a civilian entity. This needs to be taken care of ASAP. 6. Have already performed a serological survey with statistical validity. We purchased over 2 million expired kits. 7. Make a public information order. Designate one individual for the role. Enlist young YouTube enthusiasts to persuade fellow youths to follow guidelines. Same for all target population sectors. 8. Words count. When people started claiming there was a " virus outbreak in Tiberias ," and a lockdown was imposed on the city, it caused thousands to cancel their plans for the weekend, badly hurting local business. After all was said and done, the lockdown was limited to three city blocks. Too late. 9. Establish a central data storage system consisting of all the epidemiological testing data along with Smartphone patient tracking. The ISA (Shin Bet internal security agency) method will collapse under the strain. 10. Instill a feeling of certainty in the public sector. Lay out the plan for defeating the virus down to its smallest details, designate conditions for fully re-opening the economy. 11. Talk to everyday people—camp managers, tour guides, organizations, entertainment and cultural professionals. Listen and try to understand differences in opinion. 12. Be courageous when it comes to decision-making. If there is a professional sector with no chance of recovery, tell them the truth and offer a year of unemployment benefits plus funding for professional retraining. 13. Create a "solution team" with authority to make ad hoc decisions in situations that the 'Corona Cabinet ' isn't able to forecast ahead of time: Residents returning from trips abroad to partake in a funeral, Evangelists willing to visit in the country and be tested ahead of time, the possibility of open-air summer camps, etc. 14. Work round the clock, even on Shabbat because this involves pikuach nefesh (preserving one's life overrides all other religious rules). Ignore the minor things at the moment. 15. Apply the plan I drafted three weeks ago for the second virus wave. Above all, remember: If you can't continue making a living, it doesn't count. Good luck!
