Hadassah sharply criticized a tweet published by Galei Tzahal's Hadas Shteif, according to which the hospital is offering compensate families of deceased patients to acknowledge their loved ones died of the coronavirus.
"How low is the media prepared to go?" asked a statement by the hospital. "Fictitious, low, and degrading to anyone who even puts such a thing in writing. Shame on you, Hadas Steif," the medical center stated.
Galei Tzahal's crime correspondent recently posted a tweet headlined, "How many have really died of the Corona?" raising questions about the official death rate.
"Good people tell the truth," Steiff tweeted back at the hospital, referencing a conversation she'd had with a cafe owner who reportedly told her how her brother-in-law was had become very sick and passed away at Hadassah. The café owner claimed her sister was contacted and offered NIS 70,000 to report that her husband had perished of the virus.
"Why do that? Because they receive NIS 220,000 from the state for every patient who dies of corona." Shteif said the widow had turned down the offer but that "there are those that take them up on it."
Readers took to Twitter to slam Shteif for her allegations, forcing her to eventually take down the tweet.
It should be noted that contrary to various claims that arose at the end of the first coronavirus wave in the country, since the beginning of the second wave, mortality numbers have surpassed expectations.
There is currently near-complete consensus in Israel that the pandemic has claimed the lives of thousands who would still be alive had they not been infected with the virus.
In July of this year, the mortality rate rose approximately 7% as compared to previous years, in August the excess jumped 16 percentage points, while in September, the increase stood at about 16% based on incomplete data sampling, which could see an increase at a later point in time.
A few days ago, former director-general of the Ministry of Health, Prof. Yoram Les, who had, up till now, claimed that there was no plague to speak of, admitted a significant excess in the local death stats coming as a result of COVID-19.