JERUSALEM (AP) – After Israel jumped ahead in the race to vaccinate its population against the coronavirus, it entered into an agreement with Pfizer and promised to share large amounts of medical data with the international drug giant in exchange for the continued flow of to get his hard vaccination.
Proponents say the deal could enable Israel to become the first country to vaccinate most of its population, while providing valuable research that could help the rest of the world. But critics say the deal raises major ethical concerns, including possible privacy breaches and a deepening of the global divide that enables rich countries to store vaccines, as poorer populations, including Palestinians in the Israeli West Bank and Gaza, have to waiting to be. vaccinated.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – bluntly ahead of the country’s election in March as Israel’s prime minister said earlier this month that it had reached an agreement with Pfizer’s chief executive to speed up the delivery of vaccines to Israel.
“Israel will be a global model state,” he said. “Israel will share the statistical data with Pfizer and with the whole world that can help strategies to defeat the coronavirus.”
Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein told The Associated Press the government will hand over data to ‘see how it first affects the level of disease in Israel, the possibility of opening up the economy, various aspects of social life and whether there are any consequences of the vaccination. ”
Pfizer’s vaccine, developed in collaboration with German partner BioNTech, has received emergency approval from the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Union’s regulatory agency and is believed to provide up to 95% protection against COVID-19. But many remain unknown, including its long-term protection and whether it could prevent the transmission of the virus.
Israel, home to about 9.3 million people, is considered an ideal place to study these questions. Compulsory universal healthcare is provided by four state-run HMOs with carefully digitized medical records. This central system helped Israel administer more than 2 million doses of the vaccine in less than a month. Israel has also purchased doses of the Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines.
The vaccination is a matter of national pride. It is also at the heart of Netanyahu’s re-election campaign while trying to divert attention from his ongoing corruption trial, Israel’s deep economic crisis and the latest virus surge.
The Ministry of Health has recorded more than 551,000 cases and more than 4,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic. According to Israeli officials, most of the country wants to be vaccinated by the end of March, just around election day.
But the exact quo pro quo between Israel and Pfizer is unclear, even after a version of the deal was released on Sunday by the Israeli Ministry of Health.
Neither Israel nor Pfizer would say how much Israel paid for the vaccines, although Edelstein called it a “classic win-win” for both sides. Israeli media reported that Israel paid at least 50% more than other countries. The data is reportedly shared with the World Health Organization, but the global body has not responded to repeated requests for comment.
Earlier this month, the head of the WHO called on drug manufacturers and prosperous countries to ‘stop engaging in bilateral transactions’. and said they were hurting an attempt by the UN to increase access. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus did not single out any countries or companies.
Last week, dr. Siddhartha Datta, the WHO Europe’s Program Manager for Disease Prevention and Disease Immunization, said the agency seeks to collect “diverse” data – based on age, gender, local environment, job and other factors – and reports on any safety issues as the vaccines are used.
Israel has already announced the purchase of millions of vaccine doses before the Pfizer agreement was announced. It is unclear how the amount or rate of deliveries has changed, and whether the vaccines have been diverted from other countries.
The arrangement drew attention to the unequal distribution of vaccines between rich and poor countries. A recent estimate by the International Rescue Committee states that the WHO’s global COVAX campaign is likely to vaccinate only 20% of the world’s lower income countries by 2021.
“It’s a shady deal under the table that some countries prefer over others without any transparency,” said Lawrence Gostin, a professor of global health law at Georgetown University in Washington. “Ultimately, it will be low- and middle-income countries that are left behind.”
Dr. Nadav Davidovitch, head of the public health school at Ben Gurion University in Israel and a government adviser on coronavirus policy, said the agreement raised concerns about the outrageous inequality of vaccination efforts.
“To eradicate COVID-19 or at least control it effectively, we need to see the world picture,” Davidovitch said.
This difference is particularly striking in the case of Israel and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, who live under varying degrees of Israeli control and have not yet received any vaccines.
While vaccinating its own Arab citizens and Palestinian residents of eastern Jerusalem annexed by Israel, Israel is not responsible for vaccinating the Palestinians. Edelstein said Israel would consider helping as soon as he cared for his own citizens.
But the Palestinians and major human rights groups say Israel remains an occupying force and is responsible for providing vaccines. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh recently accused Israel of ‘racism’ but did not publicly request vaccinations.
With tens of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank working in Israel and its settlements on the West Bank, experts say Israel must vaccinate on ethical and practical grounds.
“I really think we need to see how we get the vaccine for the Palestinian Authority,” said Davidovitch, acting chairman of Israel’s association of health professionals. “We are talking about it with the Minister of Health, and I really hope that this matter will be resolved soon.”
It is also uncertain exactly what information is being shared with Pfizer. According to the agreed agreement, ‘no identifiable health information’ will be shared and the research must be published in a recognized medical journal.
It is said that Israel will provide weekly information to Pfizer on various age and demographic groups. The aim, according to him, is to “analyze epidemiological data arising from the production of products to determine whether herd immunity is achieved after a certain percentage of vaccination has been achieved in Israel.”
The data is aimed at ending the global COVID-19 pandemic for the benefit of all patients inside and outside Israel. ‘
Privacy Israel, an advocacy group that called on the government to make the deal public, welcomed the release, but said certain questions remain unanswered, mostly about the handling and security of private information. It also obscured certain details, such as key dates and the names of the officials involved. However, it is said that there is “a little more certainty” about sharing information with a global corporation.
Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler, a digital privacy expert at the Israel Democracy Institute, questions the ethics of a deal that could bring millions of profits to Pfizer. She also said that sharing large amounts of information could potentially still endanger the privacy of individuals, even if presumably made anonymous.
“If the data set, conservatively, is to be hacked, the risk will be yours,” she said, referring to Israeli citizens.