After spending much of 2020 confined, artistic makeup artist Artyom Kavnatsky was ready to return to work. But when he showed up at a recent photo shoot, the person using it didn’t let him work. The reason? No coronavirus had been vaccinated.
“He sent me back because he hadn’t vaccinated me,” Kavnatsky said. “That’s discrimination, it’s not right.”
Israel’s intense vaccination campaign made it one of the first countries to resume its pre-pandemic routines. Bars, shops, hotels and gyms reopened in Israel, where 80% of the adult population has been vaccinated and COVID-19 infections and deaths have plummeted.
Israel is an example of what a vigorous immunization campaign can do, but it can also be a model of how to solve the problems being sold: Jobs and schools are deciding what to do with people who refuse to vaccinate and a clash is generated between the promoters of public health and the rights of the individual, while provoking new questions about equality. One case ended up in the courts and more are expected to follow the same course.
Airlines are weighing whether to require vaccines or negative travel evidence, as the European Union does. Some officials in Britain and the United States are studying whether immunization tests can open the door to large meetings, although in the United States there is still enough resistance to this step. Even more delicate is the question of whether immunization should be a requirement for returning to work or school.
In many countries the decisions that are made could increase the strong divisions that exist around wealth and access to vaccines.
In Israel, the vast majority of the 100,000 Palestinians living in the West Bank and have work permits in Israel have been vaccinated, but in the West Bank and in Gaza, vaccination is far behind schedule. In many parts of the world they have received few vaccines, if they arrived.
Israel has offered a number of incentives to people to get vaccinated. He created a “green pass” for people who were vaccinated that gives access to concerts, dinners outside, the gym and popular tourist destinations such as Egypt, Cyprus and Greece. Those who don’t have the pass, can’t do any of that.
The system is working well in the entertainment sector. But it is now expanding to other areas and health authorities recommend banning access to schools, nursing homes and other workplaces if a person did not recently test negative for COVID.
The Israeli health care system, on the other hand, requires all its employees – doctors, nurses, clerks and support staff – to be vaccinated. If they refuse, they are transferred to areas where there is no contact with high-risk patients.
Labor rights organizations say such regulations can jeopardize people’s incomes.
There are similar concerns in the education sector. Tel Aviv University, the largest in Israel, found a delicate balance for now.
The university is resuming classes in person but only students who have been vaccinated are admitted, according to its vice-chancellor Eyal Zisser. Those who do not get vaccinated continue to take teleclasses.
“At this early stage, students who have the green pass can come and we make sure the rest have access to classes” over the internet, Zisser noted.
Despite the success of their campaign, there are hundreds of thousands of people in Israel who have not been vaccinated, some because they oppose vaccines in general, others because they are afraid of a vaccine that was produced very quickly. . Experts from the United Nations, the United States and Europe, however, have said that vaccines authorized in Israel are safe and effective.
Kavnatsky, the makeup artist, questions vaccines and modern medicine in general, saying he doesn’t want “any needles in my body.” He is not alone. He is a 15,000 member of a Facebook group that resists what he describes as a forced state immunization.
Rappeh, a political party led by Aryeh Avni, which strongly opposes the vaccine, received 17,000 votes in last week’s legislative elections. This failed to gain access to parliament, but it illustrates the challenge lawmakers face.
Israel’s health ministry admits its powers are limited.
“We can’t force people to get vaccinated,” said Einav Shimron, the ministry’s deputy director of international relations.
The Association for Civil Rights of Israel, a non-governmental organization dealing with labor issues, said the use of the long-term green pass poses potential problems in the field of civil rights and urged the government to sanction legislation on the subject.
“If it is to be a policy that violates the right to employment and a person’s right to choose what they do with their body to be employed, it must be subject to the legislative process,” spokeswoman Maya said. Fried. “There has to be a public debate.”
The debate is already in the courts.
In the first major mistake on the subject, a Tel Aviv labor court in March authorized a daycare center to veto a worker who refused to be vaccinated and to undergo coronavirus testing. It is foreseeable that the decision will be appealed.
Dr. Nadav Davidovitch, director of the Association of Physicians of the Israeli Public Health Service, says people have an obligation to get vaccinated, especially in light of the evidence that the vaccine not only prevents worse results from a COVID-19 infection, but it reduces the spread of viruses. Israel has a population of 9.3 million and just over 6,000 deaths since the pandemic began.
“The vaccine is an act of solidarity, not just an individual choice,” he argued.
Anyway, he said he opposes compulsory vaccination and firing people to refuse immunization. He indicated that those who insist on refusing can be given another job, allowed to work from home or be subjected to constant testing.
Davidovitch, who was an armed force epidemiologist, explains that 90% of Israeli recruits did not want to be vaccinated when they enlisted and ended up accepting to be educated on the subject.
“It’s not a good idea to force people,” he argued. “Most people have doubts. They’re not against vaccines in general.”