TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) – Violet light bathed the club stage as 300 people, masked and socially distanced, burst into soft applause. For the first time since the pandemic began, Israeli musician Aviv Geffen steps to his electric piano and starts playing for an audience sitting right in front of him.
“A miracle is happening here tonight,” Geffen told the crowd.
Still, the reunion experience Monday night above a mall north of Tel Aviv was not accessible to everyone. Only people showing a ‘green passport’ proving that they have been vaccinated or recovered from COVID-19 could enter.
The highly controlled concert gave a glimpse into a future that many people yearn for months of COVID-19 restrictions. Governments say getting vaccinated and having proper documentation will facilitate the way to travel, entertainment and other social gatherings in a post-pandemic world.
But it also raises the prospect of further dividing the world in the line of wealth and access to vaccines, creating ethical and logistical issues that worry decision-makers around the world.
Other governments are watching Israel use the world’s fastest vaccination program and wrestle with the ethics of using the shots as diplomatic currency and power..
Within Israel, green passports or badges obtained through an app are the currency of the empire. The country has recently reached agreements with Greece and Cyprus to recognize each other’s green badges, and more such tourism-enhancing agreements are expected.
Health Minister Iulius Edelstein does not want to be left behind or is unable to get the sting that gives immunity.
“This is actually the only way to move forward at the moment,” Geffen said in an interview with The Associated Press.
The checks at the club’s doors, which only allowed those who could prove they had been fully vaccinated, at least allowed a semblance of normality.
“People cannot live in the new world without them,” he said. ‘We have to take the vaccines. We have to. “
The vaccine is not available to everyone in the world, whether due to supply or cost. And some people do not want it, for religious or other reasons. In Israel, a country of 9.3 million people, only half of the adult population received the required two doses.
There is new pressure from the government to encourage vaccinations. Israeli lawmakers on Wednesday passed a law allowing the Ministry of Health to release information about people yet to be vaccinated. Under the policy, names could be made public to the ministries of education, labor, social affairs and social services, as well as local governments, “with the aim of allowing these bodies to encourage people to be vaccinated.”
The government appeals to the emotional longing for the company of others – in Israel’s outdoor markets, at concerts like Geffen’s and elsewhere.
‘With the Green Pass, doors open just for you. You can go to restaurants, work out at the gym, see a show, ‘reads an announcement on February 21, the day a large part of the economy was reopened after a six-week shutdown.
Then it raised a question in the midst of the global quest to overcome the pandemic that hampered economies and killed nearly 2.5 million people:
‘How do you get the pass? Go get vaccinated right away. ”
It is so simple in Israel, which has enough vaccine to vaccinate everyone over 16, although the government has been criticized for sharing only small quantities with Palestinians in the occupied West Bank and Gaza.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said this week he plans to send excess vaccine to some of the country’s allies. Israel’s attorney general said Thursday night the plan was frozen while reviewing the legality.
Most countries do not have enough vaccine, emphasizing the important ethical landscape of who can get it and how to lift the burden of COVID-19.
“The core principle of human rights is fairness and non-discrimination,” said Lawrence Gostin, a professor at Georgetown University and director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Center on National and Global Health Law.
“There is a huge moral crisis in equity worldwide, because in high-income countries like Israel, the United States or the EU, we are likely to get herd immunity by the end of this year,” he said. ‘But in many low-income countries, most people will not be vaccinated for years to come. Do we really want to give preference to people who already have so many privileges? ”
This is a question that plagues the international community, as prosperous countries get a grip on the coronavirus and some of its variants.
Last April, the initiative, known as COVAX, was formed by the WHO, with the initial aim of bringing vaccinations to poor countries by about the same time that shots are being rolled out in rich countries. It missed the target, and 80% of the 210 million doses administered worldwide were given in only ten countries, WHO director Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said this week.
Ghana on Wednesday became the first of 92 countries to receive free vaccinations through the initiative. COVAX has announced that approximately 600,000 doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine have arrived in the African country. This is a fraction of the 2 billion shots that the WHO wants to deliver this year.
As the countries begin vaccinations, prosperous countries start talking about ‘green passport’ logistics, security, privacy and policies.
The UK government has said it is studying the possibility of issuing a kind of “COVID status certification” that could be used by employers and big event organizers as it prepares to ease the restrictions of the closing year.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said the policy could cause problems.
“We can not be discriminating against people who for whatever reason cannot have the vaccine,” he said.
Many countries in Europe are scrambling to develop their own vaccine certification systems to revive summer travel, creating the risk that different systems will not work right across the borders of the continent.
“I think there is a great potential for not working well together,” said Andrew Bud, CEO of iProov, facial biometrics industry, which is testing its digital passport technology in the UK National Health Service.
But the technical knots around vaccine passports are perhaps the easiest to resolve, he said.
The bigger challenges “are mainly ethical, social, political and legal. How to balance the fundamental rights of citizens … with the benefits for society. ‘
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Associated Press writers Danica Kirka and Kelvin Chan in London contributed.
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