LONDON – Israel is leading the world in vaccinating its population against COVID-19. Although the country is facing high rates of infection and is blocked, last week Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu boasted: “We will be the first country in the world to get out of the coronavirus.”
More than 20% of its population, of 9.29 million, has so far received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, which so far far exceeds the vaccination rates of all other countries in the world.
Since the vaccine was approved, the country has made rapid progress and achieved its emergency resources with great effectiveness, although the vaccination program – led by Netanyahu himself – is not without controversy, as the 5 million Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank have been excluded since the launch.
Emergency base
Israel has a strong standardized public health system and a relatively small population. Meanwhile, the United States 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.
Still, the vaccination rate in Israel is staggering. Netanyahu announced on January 10 the goal of increasing the rate of vaccinations to 170,000 daily and said 72% of people over the age of 60 have received their first dose. In March, he said, the government “would bring shipments shipments and complete vaccination of the population over 16 in Israel.” Authorities will then try to start vaccinating children under the age of 16 if the investigation proves it is safe. As of Friday morning, 170,000 Israelis have received their second booster shot, part of the two-shot regime required by the Pfizer vaccine.
“Right now we are in a powerful race between two events: the spread of the disease and the distribution of vaccines,” Netanyahu said. “We are ahead of the world in vaccines with the millions of vaccines we have brought.”
Israel’s front-line health workers have moved quickly to vaccinate such a large number in a short period of time.
Although most vaccinations are carried out outside hospitals, specialized center staff continue to work flat to vaccinate the population and treat the steady influx of coronavirus patients.
At the Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv, which has been administering vaccines for some time, staff are in a state of emergency to vaccinate as much as possible.
“It’s like a mission, I’m doing injections for my friends and colleagues,” Vicky Greenberg, the head nurse in the hospital’s surgical intensive care unit, told ABC News.
“I really hope that in a few months we can celebrate Pesach (Easter) with our families, not in Zoom as we did last year. I have to get married, so I have to do it in May. It should run until May. Patient after patient for eight, nine hours a day. “
Professor Joseph Klausner, head of surgery at Ichilov Hospital, described the initial success of Israel’s early vaccination program as a “combined effort.”
“On the one hand, it ‘s a relatively small community in relation to the [United] States, for example, so it’s much easier to get there, get to the population, and get treatment there. But there was definitely some effort to achieve that. “
Dr. Dalit Salzer, another doctor at the hospital, told ABC News that she was “proud and excited” to be part of the first vaccination efforts at the start of a 26-hour shift.
The current director general of the hospital is also Israel’s former COVID commissioner, Professor Ronni Ganzu, who has seen the challenges of leading a coronavirus response from the national and local levels. Both a strong public health system and various experiences of political and military crises have helped mobilize the resources needed to vaccinate so many, so quickly.
“We understand that in the event of 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 doing. We’re trained to do it, the energy they want to do to win the war, [we are] eager to give the vaccine to as many Israelis as possible. “
Offers and data
The accelerated vaccination program takes place at a time when the country is experiencing the highest rates of COVID-19 infection and mortality since the beginning of the pandemic. The country is closed until Jan. 21, even as it deployed its massive vaccines, with 3,892 coronavirus deaths and 533,026 confirmed cases as of Friday, according to the health ministry.
The controversial Israeli prime minister has been at the forefront and center of the success of the vaccination program. He was the first Israeli to receive a punch and, over the weekend, with the media present, he received the second. Netanyahu has boasted of a close relationship with Pfizer president and CEO Albert Courla, whom he describes as a “friend.”
The couple has held 17 conversations since Jan. 17, according to Netanyahu last Sunday. Israel will share statistical data with Pfizer and around the world that will help develop strategies to defeat the coronavirus, “as part of the deal, Netanyahu said earlier this month.
“Pfizer and the Israeli Ministry of Health (MoH) have signed a collaboration agreement to study the real-world impact of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine,” a Pfizer spokesman told ABC News.
“This project will gather real-world epidemiological information that will allow real-time monitoring of the evolution of the epidemic in Israel and assess the potential of a vaccination program using the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine to activate indirect protection and interrupt viral transmission.
“Although this project is being carried out in Israel, the ideas obtained will be applicable worldwide and we anticipate that they will allow governments to maximize the impact of their vaccination campaigns on public health, determine the possible vaccination rates needed to interrupt transmission and ultimately help end the global COVID-19 pandemic. “
A report published in Politico claimed that on January 5 an informative report by officials had suggested that Israel pay Pfizer $ 30 per person, more than some other countries pay. A report by an Israeli broadcaster claimed the country had spent $ 47 per person, or $ 23.50 per dose, according to the Times of Israel.
That’s more than what the U.S. government paid for its initial doses of $ 100 million, $ 1.9 billion, which equates to $ 19 per dose and $ 38 per person. According to Reuters, the EU agreed to pay Pfizer / BioNTech $ 18.50 per dose, or $ 37 per person.
“To carry out this project, the Israeli Ministry of Health will receive vaccine doses at a previously agreed price (which remains confidential),” the Pfizer spokesman said.
Politics and Palestine
Israel’s vaccination policy has wiped out the condemnation of human rights groups and the Palestinian National Authority, as the deployment does not include the more than 5 million Palestinians living in the West Bank and Gaza, many of whom travel to Israel. to work.
The country vaccinates Israeli residents in West Bank settlements, but not Palestinians living there or in Gaza. Human rights groups, including Amnesty International, have said the exclusion means Israel “ignores its obligations” as an occupying force under international law and “exposes Israel’s institutionalized discrimination.”
There have been high rates of infections and deaths in the West Bank and Gaza, which is currently closed in the short term, and Amnesty has called on Israel to “ensure that vaccines are provided equally to Palestinians living under its control.” ”.
“We condemn the racism of the occupying state, which boasts of the speed with which vaccinating its citizens and neglecting the legal responsibility to provide vaccines to the employed,” Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said this month.
But that, in the current climate, is unlikely to happen. Yuli Edelstein, the Israeli Minister of Health, has said that the priority is to vaccinate so many Israelis before considering any shortage of the Palestinian side.
The Palestinian Authority is in negotiations with several other companies to acquire its own vaccines. The Russian Direct Investment Fund announced that the Russian vaccine against the Sputnik V coronavirus has been registered by the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Delivery of the vaccine will begin in February, according to Health Minister Mai Kailleh.
“I think there are definitely moral and legal obligations,” Yossi Mekelberg, a professor of international relations and a member of the Chatham House think tank, told ABC News. “Many of them work in Israel or in the Jewish settlements of the occupied West Bank. They move from one place to another. But it doesn’t reach Netanyahu’s base and it probably won’t. “
Meanwhile, doctors in Gaza, severely hit by the first wave and now fearing a second surge, 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 this continues because there is always fear of a second wave and it is usually aggressive,” Dr Mohammed El Sheek Ali told ABC News on head of the Covid department at the European Hospital in Gaza. “We need the vaccine and, as soon as possible, because we are facing a difficult situation in Gaza, we lack resources.”
Bruno Nota, Nasser Atta and Sohel Uddin of ABC News contributed to this report.