Vaccination Nation: Lessons from Israel’s COVID-19 Vaccine Launch

MANILA – Filipina Judith Chavez had been working as a caregiver in the city of Rehovot, Israel, for more than 2 years when the Jewish state implemented a blockade to stop the spread of COVID-19 in March 2020.

Nursing homes (batei avot) and sheltered housing (diur mugan) for the elderly were some of the first establishments to be locked.

“When they closed in March 2020, they restricted nursing homes. The elderly were the first to be cared for by the government. We are not allowed to go to the store, we are not allowed to go out the door of the building. We can go round and round as long as we are not allowed to leave, ”said Chávez, 38, in an interview with ABS-CBN News.

[When the lockdown started in March 2020, they became very strict with the nursing homes. The government protected the elderly first. We were not allowed to go to the store, not allowed to step out of the building. We can roam around the housing unit but we were not allowed out.]

Food deliveries became the norm for these nursing homes. If they needed anything (food, vaccines, and supplies), the young members of the Israel Defense Forces would fetch these items and bring them home.

Caregivers staying in these homes also underwent COVID-19 smear tests every week.

In September, restrictions were relaxed slightly and some employers allowed caregivers to leave. However, a second wave of COVID-19 infections forced the Israeli government to implement further restrictions as cases rose to 140,000.

On December 30, 2020, Chávez and the 90-year-old Israeli he was caring for received their first injection of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine inside the nursing home.

The first to be hit by COVID-19 were the bedridden elderly; health workers simply went to their rooms to administer the vaccinations. Those who could walk received their blows in the large kitchen of the nursing home.

The second injection was given after 20 to 21 days.

“We are very petty. We are not allowed to exhibit, so they are the ones who come to us, ”he said. [We were well taken care of. We could not be exposed so it was the [health workers] who would come to us.]

“They value, they take more care of the elderly [They really value and are always protective of the elderly], “she added.

ISRAEL AS A VACCINE LABORATORY

On March 25, Israel announced that it had administered two doses of the COVID-19 vaccine to more than half of its population of 9.3 million, a global deployment that has helped the country emerge from pandemic closures.

Israel began distributing the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccines on December 19, the day after Hannukah, with eligibility extended to citizens and residents over the age of 16 or around 69% of the population of 9.3 million. People are considered to be fully protected one week after receiving the second injection.

How did Israel, which at one point last year had one of the highest rates of COVID-19 infections per capita, change with one of the fastest COVID-19 vaccination programs in the world?

According to Israel’s Ambassador to the Philippines Rafael Harpaz, the success of Israel’s COVID-19 vaccine launch was a combination of many things, including early access to Pfizer / BioNTech vaccines plus an extensive supply of COVID-19 vaccines from Pfizer, Moderna and AstraZeneca, as well as a strong public health infrastructure to implement the mass vaccination plan.

To get the vaccines early, the Israeli government gave Pfizer a unique opportunity to study the real-world impact of the vaccine developed with Germany’s BioNTech. Israel would serve as a “laboratory” for Pfizer, Harpaz said, by submitting anonymous medical information on the effects of the vaccine on the population.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also became the public face of the vaccine campaign by becoming the first Israeli to receive the COVID-19 vaccine.

“The first person to receive the photo on primetime television was the prime minister. . . And then President Reuven Rivlin was the second. Being a role model for people, especially when you have all this fake news, was a crucial issue, ”said Harpaz.

More importantly, he said, Israel had the means to distribute the vaccines quickly through 4 health maintenance organizations (HMOs) that provide medical care to all residents.

“What is different, I think, of many countries is that [Israel] has a national health system, national health insurance. Everyone in Israel is automatically insured. The form of distribution in Israel is amazing. Each of us should have our own HMO. There are four of them and they did the distribution, so there is no private sector here. It is the government. The government brought the vaccines. The prime minister, he personally participated in obtaining it, ”said Harpaz.

Israeli officials offered different incentives to entice residents to take advantage of vaccines, including free food, small gifts and even concert tickets.

Contact tracing was also important from the beginning of the pandemic; People who come in contact with COVID patients receive text messages that they need to test and quarantine.

Even those who have already recovered from COVID-19 received an injection of the Pfizer vaccine 90 days after recovery “because it gives them so much more protection,” Harpaz said.

One reason for Israel to eliminate the virus quickly through vaccination was time, with more than 820,000 of the country’s 9.3 million people infected with the virus.

“The quarantine was a problem because discipline is, you know, a cultural and social problem. It was a big problem in Israel, how do we maintain social distance. And that’s why the numbers were very high, it was very difficult. . But now it’s a totally different situation, ”Harpaz said.

Chávez said he witnessed firsthand how Israelis’ attitudes toward the virus changed over time.

“When the pandemic broke out, the Israeli reaction, when you are masked, can mistake you for COVID. Because the Filipino is advanced, we talk amongst ourselves, ‘Or there should be a mask.’ They looked at us from head to toe, ”he recalled.

(When the pandemic broke out, the reaction of the Israelis was that if you wear a mask, they will suspect you have COVID. Filipinos think in advance that we would talk to each other, ‘Oh, we should wear masks’ to us from head to toe. )

“In the second wave, the swimming is regular, there are no masks, the parties are regular. E COVID has had a boom, it has increased significantly. That is what they learned. Also masks. By December they learned that there are vacations but they no longer get together. They are just Christmas celebrations at home. “

(During the second wave, they were swimming, no masks, frequent parties. And then COVID exploded, and the numbers went up. That’s when they learned and started wearing masks. Last December, they had vacations but there were no meetings. The celebrations were in each one’s houses.)

VACCINATION CAREGIVERS

Harpaz said that opening the vaccination program to everyone in Israel, including Filipinos, was important in reducing COVID-19 numbers.

Some 30,000 Filipino caregivers, 400 agricultural students, staff members of the Philippine embassy in Israel and Filipinos with expired work permits have received free injections of the Pfizer vaccine, according to the Israeli embassy in Manila.

“First, we can’t force people to get vaccinated, okay? This is very important, this is the challenge ”, said the ambassador.

“To all those OFW that were already in Israel, plus the 400 TESDA agriculture students and the Filipino diplomats and the staff of the Philippine Embassy we give them, if they want, vaccinations for them and I know that most of them took advantage of this.

“Also, there are still OFW every week that they go to Israel. Caregivers only, those are the only OFW working in Israel. And when they come, after the quarantine, they receive the vaccines immediately ”.

Harpaz praised Filipino caregivers for “doing an incredible job of caring for the most vulnerable Israelis, our elderly” during the pandemic.

Israel has also donated protective equipment for first responders from the Philippine National Police and the Department of Defense, as well as distance learning equipment to the Department of Education, water fountains in schools.

Harpaz said his advice to the Filipinos is the same message he would give to the Israelis: “We need to believe that we are going to get out of this. We need to be strong, resilient, maintain social distance, and wear masks. “

“In the end, we’ll look back on the future and say, you know, we learned from it. . . The most important [thing] it is to maintain people’s lives, that people are healthy … I pray for this country. It is a great country, a great people, a resistant people ”. – With a Reuters report