TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) – Israel, Denmark and Austria on Thursday agreed to join forces in the fight against COVID-19 with an investment in research and rollout of vaccines to protect people from new surges and mutations of the coronavirus.
The leaders of the three countries have said their alliance will set up a vaccine establishment and plants in Europe and Israel, based on Israel’s leading vaccination.
The effort is aimed at achieving another expected surge of COVID-19, and the uncertainty over how long the vaccination will remain effective. Details, such as the cost and time frame for opening the projects, are still being worked out, the leaders said.
“We think that through the resources of three small but very capable and gifted countries, we can better meet these challenges,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He added that other countries had also expressed interest in the effort.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz added that “this pandemic can only be overcome through global cooperation.”
This was a delicate question as virus-fighting campaigns in places like Europe faced challenges and expressed concern that the pandemic would last longer in poorer countries that could not afford vaccinations.
Israel has vaccinated more than half of its population in one of the world’s most successful vaccination campaigns, although it has been criticized for not sending significant amounts of vaccines to the Palestinians..
That is expected to change next week with Israel providing vaccines to about 100,000 Palestinian workers working in Israel or its settlements on the West Bank. Yet the vast majority of the estimated five million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip will remain unvaccinated.
For Netanyahu, the alliance served as a way to ease his political muscle on the international stage ahead of the March 23 election. ‘Vaccination nation’, as he calls Israel, will become a ‘vaccination nation’, which includes Denmark and Austria, he said, adding that the group would welcome more international partners.
While Israel does not produce vaccines, the prime minister has moved aggressively to secure enough vaccines for Israel’s 9.3 million people in agreements with Pfizer and Moderna. Netanyahu even offered some excess vaccines to related countries.
European leaders have said they want to learn from Israel’s success. Austria is among a number of members of the European Union who have expressed frustration over the slow roll-out of the vaccine under the bloc of 27 countries. Kurz said he was satisfied with some of the EU’s handling of the crisis, “but we also need to work together globally.”
Earlier in the day, Kurz and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen joined Netanyahu at a gym in Israel to see how vaccines, known as the “green pass”, or passport, work. Only people with the badge indicating that they have been vaccinated, can be accessed through an app, can use gyms and go to concerts.
“There are a lot of steps for the production of vaccines, so we will divide the task between us, and each one has to concentrate on specific,” Kurz said. His country will need about 30 million doses for the next expected phase of the pandemic. Austria has vaccinated just over 6% of its population.
Frederiksen said she would also like to see the countries work together on clinical trials. From March 1, Denmark has vaccinated just over 7% of its population.
“We all have promising research that could pave the way for next-generation platforms,” she said.
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Associated Press authors Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.
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