TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) – When it comes to fighting the coronavirus, Israel is discovering the limits of vaccines.
The country famous for its skills and spirit of high-tech innovation is home to the world’s fastest vaccination, fueled from the top by national pride and a deep desire to start “coming back to life ”. as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
But experts say the country’s reopening will still take months, complicated by coronavirus mutations that have spread from Britain and South Africa, the refusal of some sectors to adhere to safety standards and hesitant to the pace of vaccinations of under-60s.
While the government is expected to begin easing a third nationwide shutdown in the coming days, there are likely to be other partial closures as the threat subsides and flows.
“It will be an act of balance,” said Eyal Leshem, director of the Center for Travel Medicine and Tropical Diseases at Sheba Medical Center.
In an impressive feat, more than a third of Israel’s 9.3 million people have received at least one shot in a few weeks and more than 1.9 million have received both doses, perhaps putting the country on track. inoculate almost its entire adult population by the end of March.
Along with praise for its speed, Israel has been the subject of global criticism to exclude Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the blocked Gaza Strip. The situation has drawn attention to the global disparity in access to vaccines between rich and poor countries..
Human rights groups say Israel has an obligation, as an occupying power, to vaccinate Palestinians. Israel denies having this responsibility and says its priority is its own citizens. However, this week Israel transferred 5,000 doses for the first time of the Modern Vaccine to the Palestinian Authority for inoculating medical workers.
In Israel, for the first time, researchers are beginning to see the effects of vaccines, giving other nations a very early view of what to expect.
Netanyahu said Thursday that among people over 60, the first group vaccinated, severe hospitalizations have dropped 26 percent and confirmed infections have dropped 45 percent in the past 16 days.
“This is a direct result of the vaccines,” he said. “Vaccines work.”
But other key indicators, including deaths and new infections, remain high, in part due to rapidly spreading mutations and a one-month lag time before the vaccine shows all its benefits.
Israel has reported about 7,000 new infections a day, one of the highest rates in the developed world. About 5,000 people have died, more than a quarter in January alone.
Israel has certain advantages that suggest that its success in vaccination cannot be easily duplicated anywhere else. It is small, with 9.3 million people. It has a centralized and digitized healthcare system, which is offered through only four HMOs. And its leader, Netanyahu, has made the vaccine a central element of his candidacy for re-election in March., personally negotiating agreements with the CEOs of Pfizer and Moderna.
Still, experts around the world are looking forward to it.
“Israel’s aggressive inoculation program demonstrates that it is possible for a country to put vaccines in people’s arms quickly and efficiently,” said Jonathan Crane, an bioethicist at Emory University in Atlanta. In an email, he praised the centralized effort compared to the “partial” form that various jurisdictions offer vaccines in countries like the US.
Even with these first signs of success, it is becoming increasingly clear that there will be no pandemic a day later, a time of celebration in which people get back to work, hold large family reunions, or resume social life. they knew.
Reopening will depend on many factors, including efforts to stop the spread of highly contagious variants and whether the public takes appropriate precautions. Many Israelis were horrified this week by scenes of large ultra-Orthodox funerals for two revered rabbis, with most of the bad guys without masks.
Parts of the population, including the Arab and ultra-Orthodox sectors and younger adults, have shown an apparent reluctance to be vaccinated, which could also hamper efforts to secure “herd immunity” and stop the virus.
“All of Europe is waiting for vaccines and people here don’t want to be vaccinated?” Sara Baruch said after receiving her second dose on Wednesday in Tel Aviv. “It’s weird.”
He said it’s a “big mistake” if the trend continues: “We won’t be able to go on vacation and go back to the normal life we had before.”
The vaccination campaign has become a feature of popular culture and a point of national pride. Israelis proudly post photos on social media where they are shown vaccinated and an HMO serves Capuchins afterwards so that people’s side effects can be controlled before they leave.
Experts have recommended a gradual reopening of the country, although political leaders will make the final decision. Closures and reopenings, experts say, will be a cost-benefit analysis that will change depending on the course of the outbreak and the state of the economy.
Dr. Nadav Davidovitch, a member of a government advisory group, said young children along with vaccinated high school students over the age of 16 should be allowed to return to school in the first stage and that only teachers who have been inoculated should be in class. Street shops and restaurants could be opened for takeaway only, followed in later stages by shopping malls and cultural events open only to vaccinated people.
He said the steps should be staggered every two weeks, with constant monitoring of infection rates, testing and more vaccinations. Indoor and outdoor public meetings should remain limited for a while, he said. Distances and social masks are required for the foreseeable future.
“It will be very gradual in the coming months,” said Davidovitch, director of the public health school at Israel’s Ben-Gurion University. “Vaccines are very important, but they won’t solve all the problems.”
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Associated Press writers Josef Federman, Isaac Scharf and Ilan Ben Zion collaborated.
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