Israeli gov’t withdraws order to conduct COVID tests after pushback from hospitals

Israel’s Health Ministry backtracked on its request for hospitals to conduct PCR tests on all new patients after pushback from the public hospital’s management.

According to Kan News, Israel’s public broadcasting network, the Health Ministry decided to withdraw their order because the public hospitals informed them that it would require too many resources to perform a COVID test on every incoming patient.

Earlier this week, the Israeli government body asked all hospitals to test every new patient for COVID using the controversial PCR tests to “more effectively track the infection rates,” even though PCR tests have been shown to be flawed and produce inaccurate results.

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Israel’s General Public Hospital Managers’ Forum sent a response letter to the Health Ministry in which it politely refused to conduct PCR tests on every incoming patient. The hospital representatives said they would “continue to perform PCR tests according to clinal judgment.”

“In our professional opinion, performing the test for all hospitalized patients will not bring effective information,” the letter read.

“On the other hand, this volume of activity imposes an unreasonable workload on us, especially in laboratories that are already very busy. In addition, this will result in considerable expenses of the purchases and salary budget in a period that is economically challenging.”

“With great respect, the [number] of patients arriving for hospitalization due to Covid is low, [and] therefore it may be preferable to conduct this testing survey in the community where most of the patients with respiratory symptoms are located and there will be a more significant effect to the survey there.”

At the beginning of the COVID crisis, Israel was one of the first countries to introduce restrictive measures, including large-scale lockdowns. The demand by the Health Ministry to reintroduce mandatory PCR tests came amid rumors of lockdowns and mask mandates returning this fall.

The refusal of the Israel hospital to comply with the government’s request may be seen as a sign of growing pushback to the revival of the draconian COVID regime across the world.