LONDON – Israel is by far the world leader when it comes to vaccinating the population against COVID-19. Although the country is experiencing high levels of infection and incarceration, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted last week: “We will be the first country in the world to emerge from the coronavirus.”
More than 20% of the population of 9.29 million have so far received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which so far far exceeds the vaccination rates in all other countries in the world.
Since the vaccine was approved, the country has moved rapidly, accumulating emergency resources with great effect, but the vaccination program – led by Netanyahu himself – is not without controversy, as the five million Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank are excluded. is. from the deployment.
Emergency position
Israel has a strong standardized public health system and a relatively small population. The U.S., meanwhile, has 64 health jurisdictions – each with its own rules and regulations – and the best per capita vaccination rates have been seen in areas with smaller populations.
Nevertheless, the vaccination rate in Israel is staggering. Netanyahu announced on January 10 the goal of increasing the rate of vaccinations daily to 170,000, saying that 72% of people over 60 received their first dose. By March, he said the government would “send to dispatch and complete the vaccination of the population of more than 16 in Israel.” Then the authorities will try to vaccinate under 16s if the research shows that it is safe. As of Friday morning, 170,000 Israelis had received their second shot – part of the two-shot regime requiring the Pfizer vaccine.
“Right now we are in a powerful race between two events: the spread of the disease and the spread of the vaccines,” Netanyahu said. ‘We are at the forefront of vaccines all over the world with the millions of vaccines we have brought. ”
Israel’s leading health workers have moved quickly to vaccinate such large numbers within a short period of time.
While most out-of-hospital vaccinations take place at specialist centers, staff continue to vaccinate the population and treat the steady influx of coronavirus patients.
At the Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, which has been administering the vaccines for some time, the staff is vital to vaccinate as much as possible.
“It’s like a mission, I do injections for my friends and for my colleagues,” Vicky Greenberg, the hospital’s chief nurse’s surgical intensive care unit, told ABC News.
‘I really hope that in a few months we can celebrate Pesach with our families, not in Zoom like last year. I have to get married, so I have to do it in May. It should work until May. Patient to patient for eight, nine hours a day. ”
Prof. Joseph Klausner, head of surgery at Ichilov Hospital, described the early success of Israel’s early vaccination program as a ‘joint effort’.
‘On the one hand, it is a relatively small community in relation to the [United] States, for example, so it’s much easier to get there, to get to the population and get treatment there within. But there has certainly been an effort to achieve it. ”
Dr Dalit Salzer, another doctor at the hospital, told ABC News she was “proud and excited” to be part of the early vaccination efforts at the start of a 26-hour shift.
The current CEO of the hospital is also the former COVID commissioner of Israel, prof. Ronni Ganzu, who saw the challenges of leading a coronavirus response nationally and locally. Both a strong public health care system and multiple experiences of political and military crises have helped mobilize the necessary resources to vaccinate so quickly.
“We understand that in a disaster, in an emergency, we have very little time to act,” Ganzu told ABC News. “And that’s what we’re really used to. We’re trained to do it, the energy they want to do to win the war, [we are] is very much looking forward to giving the vaccine to as many Israelites as possible. ”
Offers and dates
The accelerated vaccination program is taking place at a time when the country is experiencing the highest percentage of COVID-19 infection and mortality since the start of the pandemic. According to the Ministry of Health, the country was locked up until January 21 to January 21, even while implementing its mass vaccinations, with 3,892 coronavirus deaths and 533,026 confirmed cases.
The controversial Israeli prime minister has put himself at the forefront of the success of the vaccination program. He was the first Israeli to receive a slap, and during the weekend, with the presence of the media, he received his second. Netanyahu boasts of a close relationship with Albert Courla, chairman and CEO of Pfizer, whom he describes as a ‘friend’.
The couple had 17 talks on January 17, Netanyahu claimed last Sunday. “Israel will share the statistical data with Pfizer and the whole world that will help strategies to defeat the coronavirus,” as part of the agreement, Netanyahu said earlier this month.
“Pfizer and the Israeli Ministry of Health (MoH) have entered into a collaboration agreement to study the true impact of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine,” a Pfizer spokesman told ABC News.
“This project will gather critical epidemiological information in the real world that enables real-time monitoring of the evolution of the epidemic in Israel and can evaluate the potential of a vaccination program using the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to provide indirect protection. cause and interrupt viral transmission.
‘While this project is being carried out in Israel, insights around the world will apply, and we expect governments to maximize the public health impact of their vaccination campaigns, determine potential vaccination rates needed to interrupt the transmission, and ultimately could put an end to the global COVID-19 pandemic. ”
A report in Politico claims that an official letter from officials on January 5 suggested that Israel pay Pfizer $ 30 per person, more than is paid by other countries. One report by an Israeli broadcaster claims that according to the Times of Israel, the country spent $ 47 per person, or $ 23.50 per dose.
That’s more than the U.S. government paid for their initial doses of $ 100 million, $ 1.9 billion, which is $ 19 per dose and $ 38 per person. According to Reuters, the EU has agreed to pay Pfizer / BioNTech $ 18.50 per dose or $ 37 per person.
“In order to carry out this project, the Israeli MoH will receive vaccine doses at a pre-agreed price (which remains confidential),” the Pfizer spokesman said.
Politics and Palestine
Israel’s vaccination policy has drawn condemnation from human rights groups and the Palestinian National Authority, as the more than five million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza do not include more than five million Palestinians.
The country vaccinates Israeli residents in settlements in the West Bank, but not Palestinians living there or in Gaza. Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, said the exclusion meant Israel was “ignoring its obligations” as an occupying power under international law and “exposing Israel’s institutionalized discrimination.”
There have been high infection rates and deaths in the West Bank and Gaza, which are currently being briefly locked up, and Amnesty has called on Israel to “ensure that vaccines are provided equally to the Palestinians living under their control.”
“We condemn the racism of the occupying state, which boasts of the speed of vaccination of its citizens and the failure of the legal responsibility to provide vaccines to the people under occupation,” Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said this month.
But that is unlikely to happen in the current climate. Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said the priority was to vaccinate so many Israelis before considering a shortage on the Palestinian side.
The Palestinian Authority is negotiating with several other companies to obtain their own vaccines. The Russian Direct Investment Fund has announced that the Russian Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine has been registered by the Palestinian Ministry of Health. According to Health Minister Mai Kailleh, the vaccine will be launched in February.
“I think there are definitely moral and legal obligations,” Yossi Mekelberg, a professor of international relations and senior fellow at the Chatham House think tank, told ABC News. ‘Many of them work in Israel or in the Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. They move from one place to another. But that does not play for Netanyahu’s base, and is unlikely to happen. ‘
Meanwhile, doctors in Gaza, who were hit hard by the first wave and now fear a surge of a second, say the need for a vaccine is as acute as ever.
“We can say we are working in a comfortable situation, we are no longer under pressure and I hope it will continue because there is always a fear of a second wave and usually it is an aggressive one,” he said. dr. Mohammed El Sheek Ali, head of the Covid division at the European Gaza Hospital, told ABC News. “We need the vaccine and we have as little lack of resources as possible because we are in a difficult situation in Gaza.”
ABC News’ Bruno Nota, Nasser Atta and Sohel Uddin contributed to this report.