Establishment medicine and COVID
by Devora Meyer
In January 2020 I had been working for a medical concierge company in Israel for over four years. As administrative manager, I had been with The Company almost from the very beginning. The founder of The Company is a dynamic, knowledgeable, smart, and accomplished medical professional. He saw the gaps in the Israeli socialized medical system, and sought to make a profitable company, filling those gaps.
Socialized medicine is a two-tiered system. For optimal health it is important to know when to seek private medical advice vs. using government health insurance. It is also helpful to have an objective medical professional to help with diagnosis and/or to explain the diagnosis. The Company strived to become the go-to place for residents of Israel, especially older people with various health issues. Also, it is a rite of passage for thousands of Jewish high school students to spend a gap year studying Jewish texts and touring Israel. The Company became the address for added medical ADVICE coverage for many of these programs, having hundreds of visiting students under its tutelage.
In March 2020, when COVID became a reality, almost all the programs encouraged their students to leave Israel. The Company agreed with this decision. The Company needed to regroup, to find its place in the “pandemic” atmosphere.
The Company’s director and its business manager decided the role of The Company would be to enforce the Ministry of Health’s directives to an extreme, and to heighten the fear of the population. I was in many meetings (Zoom of course) where the discussion was on how to capitalize, financially, because of the pandemic. While there was real concern about illness and death, these people are not monsters, there was also a gleeful recognition of the possibility of high profit. The director is an Ivy League school graduate and he stated “they always knew the big pandemic was coming. We trained for this.” As a medical professional, he was looking forward to the recognition he would receive for being an expert of pandemic and viruses. The Company released videos on social media platforms on how to wash hands, how to read and interpret the Ministry of Health statistics (fear, fear, fear) and later about vaccine safety and efficacy. I recognize this is a for profit company. My problem is that instead of looking for prevention (not counting lockdowns, social distancing, masks, and later vaccines) and treatment of the virus, The Company sold fear and panic just like the Ministry of Health.
By the time summer 2020 approached, I considered myself to be on the way to becoming “an expert patient”. This means I had immersed myself into virology science, “pandemics”, and COVID 19 specifically. My dream was for The Company to lead the way in early treatment, such as the Zelenko protocol which includes hydroxychloroquine, zinc, Vit D, and an anti-biotic. Even though the director told me HCQ is a safe medication and zinc does stop virus replication of viruses, it became obvious that The Company would not deviate from the MOH guidelines. The MOH was 100% against early treatments. I never heard any critical thinking towards the MOH guidelines, including blind obedience towards wearing masks outside (which of course is based on no study whatsoever and no longer enforced by the MOH). The fear of the MOH was palpable. Compliance to the MOH was a given.
Also, by the summer, there was a real push to bring those hundreds of students back to Israel. To do so, The Company pushed itself on tens of programs to be the liaison between the school and the MOH. The Company received a substantial fee from the programs to “design” coronavirus safe school campuses. How to study in capsules, where the teacher can be in a classroom, where Plexiglas barriers need to be built, etc. were all part of the Coronavirus school plan. I personally saw several exasperated directors getting frustrated at the strict guidelines for the schools to follow or “their students would not be allowed to come.”
At one meeting I suggested there were two reasons The Company could go easier on the schools:
- Most students come from the NY/NJ area. This area was hit hard by many cases and so there are many students coming with immunity;
- This age group is safe from serious disease, plus it would be best for herd immunity if they all got “it”.
It was as if I spoke in a foreign language. My reasoning was too logical for the panic-induced atmosphere they wanted to continue forever and ever.
I refused to continue to participate in Zoom meetings with school directors. I could no longer witness the unnecessary mental anguish the program directors were experiencing. I had lost respect for the medical field and its blind obedience to government health organizations. I had lost respect for the medical professionals I worked with that wanted to heighten the panic, not reduce the panic. The ego, and the feeling of self-importance is more valuable to them then critical thinking. I expressed my fear of the loss of civil liberties and medical freedom because governments were using the pandemic to take away our human rights. The director said my opinions are dangerous. . There was no discussion EVER on how to treat people with Covid. It wasn’t long before I resigned as administrative manager. I later learned that almost all gap year programs experienced a near total positive case epidemic. As far as I know no one became seriously ill.
While we see courageous health workers working in hospitals, senior care facilities, and urgent care, we have seen very little of the bravery it takes to stand up to government health bureaucrats.
It’s important for people all over the world to be aware that pandemics are the health worker’s time for self-importance. The average doctor, medical professional, or clinic is going to take advantage of and enforce government directives. My experience indicates their sense of power and control over the population trumps any thought of critical thinking, medical choice, civil rights, or human freedom.
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