- In less than two weeks, Israel gave nearly 9% of its population vaccine doses.
- In contrast, the US received doses at 0.95% of its population, and the United Kingdom less than 1.5%.
- Experts believe that the small size of Israel, coupled with its aggressive efforts to obtain vaccines and the universal, centralized health care system, is ahead of the country.
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Israel is far ahead of any other country in the administration of COVID-19 vaccines.
As of Thursday, the country had administered 800,000 doses of Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine, meaning about 8.84% of its 9 million residents received their first dose, according to Bloomberg vaccination. Health providers in Israel give doses to about 150,000 people a day.
Yonatan Adiri, former chief technology officer of former Israeli President Shimon Peres, said he expected Israel to have a “fully vaccinated population” by the end of March. Adiri is now the CEO of the Israeli health company Healthy.io. He added that the completion of vaccinations for higher-risk groups should happen sooner – hopefully by the end of February.
“We expect 10% of the population to be vaccinated by this weekend, which will make up 50% of all high-risk and Group 1,” Adiri told Business Insider.
By contrast, the U.S. administered approximately 3.1 million vaccine doses by Thursday, accounting for 95% of its total population. The United Kingdom administered doses to approximately 1.4% of the population.
Israel has some innate advantages compared to other countries that have approved vaccines. Its population is small and dense, so vaccines do not have to travel too far. But the country also has a digitized, vertically integrated healthcare system that has made it possible to spread vaccines quickly among vulnerable groups.
Israel has already secured enough doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines for all its inhabitants to get at least an initial chance, and for the majority of the population to receive the full two doses.
Netanyahu personally called Pfizer at 2 p.m.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is preparing to receive a coronavirus vaccine on December 19, 2020.
Amir Cohen / Reuters
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been criticized for some of his decisions during the pandemic, including a premature reopening during the summer that led to a major outbreak and caused a second closure. So far, more than 423,000 Israelis have been diagnosed with COVID-19, and 3,300 have died.
Netanyahu was anxious to recover the virus and bring Israel back to normal before his upcoming election in March, and issued this fall in person several times to Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer. According to the Associated Press, at one point he boasted that he spoke to the chief executive at 2 p.m.
So far, the effort seems to have worked. Israel has secured 8 million doses of Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine. It also reached a separate agreement with Moderna for 6 million shots. That’s enough for 7 million people to receive two shots – about 77% of the Israeli population. Or it’s enough for 4 million to receive a single survey, and 5 million to receive both. Only a handful of other countries have obtained more total doses of both vaccines, including the US, UK, Japan and Canada.
If Israel continues to vaccinate residents at the current rate, it could give the entire population an initial dose within two months. According to Chris Chris, an infectious disease specialist at Boston University, it is possible that single dose can provide significant protection.
Gill told WBUR that a single dose of Pfizer’s vaccine could be 80 to 90% effective, based on the phase 3 trial data collected between the first and second doses of patients. However, Pfizer says it does not have data that support the effectiveness of a single dose.
Moderna, meanwhile, collected data from patients who received only one dose of the vaccine; that data have shown that a single dose can be 80 to 90% effective.
“After 14 days, the [single dose] vaccine is remarkably effective, ”Gill told WBUR.
The FDA made a more cautious remark about single-dose for both vaccines, saying, “There seems to be some protection against COVID-19 disease after one dose.”
But even if a single dose is not effective in preventing COVID-19, Israel can achieve herd immunity within a few months.
A digitally savvy, universal healthcare system
A screenshot of Israel’s healthcare app, provided by Yonatan Adiri, December 31, 2020.
Yonatan Adiri
Israel’s vertically integrated, government – sponsored health care system has helped deploy the vaccine. All Israelis over the age of 18 must register with a government-backed insurance agency, and the system is financed by a progressive tax so that nearly 70% of Israelis receive unconditional, free care. Community health centers can be found within ten minutes of most Israelis, and these centers are used as a hub for the distribution of vaccines.
Israel’s national health care system is ‘recognized worldwide as a leader’ in providing digital care and information, according to the Wall Street Journal. Adiri said he helped elderly parents figure out how to get their vaccines on a smartphone app. The app, according to him, provides Israelis with their personal health information, including medical history, and enables them to make appointments online – also for COVID-19 vaccines.
“I opened the app and asked myself, ‘Where do you want to be vaccinated? ‘, He said, adding:’ I have my [parents’] first appointment and they told me, ‘You were given a Pfizer vaccine at a designated place’, and automatically scheduled a second dose appointment. ‘
On his own phone, Adiri will not allow Adiri to make an appointment because he is not older than 60, he said.
“We are not the most orderly country in the world. We are not Singapore,” he said. “That said, the correlation between the facts, the people being vaccinated and the policy shows that the implementation is really in line with the epidemiological logic and priorities of the policy maker.”
Palestinians are still waiting to receive vaccines
Palestinian workers inspect medical equipment donated by the International Committee of the Red Cross at the Kerem Shalom crossing in the Gaza Strip, on April 21, 2020.
Ibraheem Abu Mustafa / Reuters
However, Israel’s vaccination success does not extend to the Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. According to Al Jazeera, Palestine has only one mobile refrigeration unit in Jericho that can store the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine. Human rights groups have called on the country to allocate vaccines to Palestinians and provide logistical support for distribution.
“Israel bears moral and humanitarian responsibility for the vaccination of the Palestinian people under its control,” the Washington Post said on December 16.
Israel said it could possibly supply the excess doses of its vaccines to Palestinians. Nevertheless, Gerald Rockenschaub, head of the WHO Office for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, said it could be “early to mid-2021” before Palestinian territories receive vaccine doses.
Palestine has seen more than 138,000 COVID-19 cases for a population of about 5.1 million. At least 1,400 Palestinians have been killed.