Shafir Botner, director of the Paramedic Education Center for Magen David Adom, Israel’s national emergency medical service, was named by the Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronoth as one of its “People of the Year,” citing Dr. Botner’s work at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic there.
“Giving to the public is their way of life,” the newspaper said of the people it had selected from the Be’er Sheva and Negev region, “and during coronavirus, they increased their giving back to the community. One such person is Dr. Shafir Botner, who did not stop for a minute. With help from his neighbors from Carmit, Dr. Botner worked around the clock during the first wave.”
During the crucial early weeks and months of the pandemic, Dr. Botner routinely worked 16 to 20 hours a day helping Magen David Adom contain the outbreak, the newspaper said.
Israel has lately struggled with a second wave of the virus following what may have been too ambitious a reopening of the country’s economy. However, this past spring, MDA’s work was seen around the world as an example of how the spread of the virus could be reduced while other countries, including Spain, Italy, and the United States, were contending with runaway community spread and tens of thousands of fatalities from the disease.
Dr. Botner oversees MDA’s paramedic training program and also serves as a medevac paramedic aboard the EMS organization’s two helicopters, treating the most critically injured and sick patients. Since the pandemic began in February, however, he was also tasked with overseeing Magen David Adom’s Covid testing operations.
The testing has involved taking swab samples from more than 1.8 million Israelis and visitors from the homes and hotels of patients, from nursing homes and other institutional settings, and from drive-thru testing centers that Magen David Adom has set up throughout the country.
The long hours and the fear of being infected with the virus from repeated exposure to patients weren’t the only challenges, Dr. Botner said.
“Because my wife works for the Ministry of Health, which was similarly focused on dealing with coronavirus, huge demands were made on both of us and on the rest of our family — at a time when our children’s grandparents needed to isolate for their own health needs,” he said. “As a result, friends and neighbors were instrumental in ensuring our kids’ needs were being met and were safe.
“These are not easy times for us — or for any Israeli,” Dr. Botner said. “But knowing that our efforts are making a difference and saving lives means we’ll never regret the time and energy we’ve expended for this cause.”
