Former Health Ministry Director General Moshe Bar Siman Tov spoke with 103 FM Radio about the recent coronavirus outbreak, caused by the import of the Delta variant.
"We don't know what will happen, and we don't fully understand what is happening, and we're not sure if this will turn out well or if it will continue to worsen," Bar Siman Tov said. "We need to run our lives as if this virus is here forever, and to see how we can implement policy that allows us to live with coronavirus."
Bar Siman Tov also admitted that there had been a mistake in managing the pandemic.
"The vaccine is not providing us with the protection we expected, and it is continuing to wear off as time goes on. The vaccine, as a single tool, is not enough, and that's the central thing: It's not possible to beat the plague with one tool. We made a mistake, I was sure that the vaccines would provide us with good protection for an extended period of time. We thought that we had reached herd immunity among the population. It's legitimate to make mistakes with coronavirus, and we need to fix them."
At the same time, he emphasized, "The vaccine's contribution is outstanding: It provided us with a lot of quiet time, and if we hadn't had the vaccine, we would be in a catastrophic situation."