In Israel, the press is following with concern the climbing number of cases associated with the new variant of COVID-19, Omicron.
So far,
seven Israelis have been diagnosed with the new strain and the medical establishment suspects there are 27 other potential patients.
Not much is known about this strain but experts believe the variant is 30 to 50 times more contagious than the original virus. Others claim the actual number is up to 500 percent. And that is causing the Israeli media to
sound the alarm.Over the past week and a half, when the first cases emerged in Israel, local press circulated an array of reports about the new strain, and TV studios hosted guests with a variety of opinions, something that only
added to the general feeling of fear.But Professor Cyrille Cohen, a member of the advisory committee for clinical trials of the coronavirus vaccine at the Israeli Ministry of Health, says it is too early to jump to conclusions when talking about Omicron.
For now, and until further details about the strain are revealed, Cohen suggests "being cautious". The Israeli government seems to be following Cohen's lead.
Shortly after the discovery of the new strain, Israel shut its doors to visitors from 50 African countries where Omicron has been registered. It also barred foreign tourists from entering the country, several destinations were branded as red, meaning Israelis were banned from travelling there, and the government limited the number of people who can be together in a closed space.
The trouble is that on social media platforms hysteria has already erupted. Some stir panic by explaining how contagious the strain is, others flag conspiracy theories and claim the new variant, just as COVID-19 itself, is a "fiction" designed to brainwash and control the masses.
Cohen believes that this discourse stems from people's distrust in the medical system and the political establishment.
Since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic in early 2020, Israeli authorities have been painting a picture of gloom and doom. They imposed restrictions and came up with new regulations. But the catch was that some of them were inconsistent. Others were not adhered to even by politicians themselves.
Such was the case with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who hosted his son and the latter's girlfriend for a festive dinner in 2020 amid the raging pandemic.
A similar "crime" was also committed by ex-Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, and more recently it was the spouse of the current PM, who decided to fly abroad together with her children despite Omicron and
despite the recommendation by Bennett himself not to leave Israel.
Israel has been putting maximum effort into creating that dialogue. TV commercials and billboards explaining the dangers of COVID-19 and the need to get vaccinated are commonplace. Talk shows now feature "Ask a Doctor" segments that allow listeners and viewers to voice their concerns directly to specialists, and great emphasis is paid to the education of children.
In a way, those efforts have borne fruit. More than 5.7 million of Israel's 9 million residents have received two shots of the Pfizer vaccine. Slightly over 4 million have received the booster shot. But there is also a growing trend of those who reject the inoculation and
who encourage others to do so.
Facebook and Twitter have become the go-to platforms where such beliefs are widely circulated. They have also become places where representatives of the
medical establishment are threatened and where
mass anti-vaccination rallies are organised.
To be able to win that battle, the expert suggests that Israel's medical establishment needs to cooperate with leading social media influencers, who can help to educate the masses. But he also says that the state needs to limit and filter the information such platforms are circulating because it is "an efficient way to save lives, even though it might harm democracy".