“Crown World Vaccination Champion” Israel: How do you handle the fast pace?

“Crown World Vaccination Champion” Israel: How do you handle the fast pace?

There is a huge white tent in Tel Aviv’s central Rabin Square. Citizens can get vaccinated against the coronavirus there every minute, to help overloaded health insurance. Since December 19, a mass vaccination campaign has been carried out in Israel. The initial skepticism of many against vaccination was followed by a huge rush to vaccination stations.

According to information from Oxford researchers, no other country is vaccinated against the crown as quickly as Israel. A chart on the “Our World in Data” website compares different countries based on the number of doses administered per 100 inhabitants. At 9.18 cans per 100 inhabitants (as of Dec. 30), Israel has a clear advantage there, although not in absolute numbers, because the US, China and Britain lead there. How does the small country of Israel handle such a fast pace?

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has already declared Israel a “crown vaccination world champion.” From the beginning, he made the race for the crown vaccine a top priority. Netanyahu repeatedly called Pfizer boss Albert Bourla to secure millions of doses of vaccines for his country. When the 71-year-old man was the first to be vaccinated with the Biontech Pfizer vaccine, he said that Bourla was now “a personal friend of mine and a great friend of the State of Israel.” The head of government had also previously said that Bourla was very proud of his Jewish-Greek ancestry.

According to Netanyahu, Israel agreed to supply eight million doses of vaccines with Pfizer and six million doses of vaccines with Moderna. Moderna’s medical director, Dr. Tal Zaks is Israeli, he studied in the desert town of Beersheva.

According to media reports, millions of doses of vaccines are already in the country; the exact number is kept secret. When the first doses of Biontech-Pfizer vaccine landed in Israel on December 9, Netanyahu received them personally at the airport. “It is not a fact that the State of Israel, a huge country in so many areas but a small state with nine million inhabitants, will receive the vaccine at the same time as Great Britain and the largest and leading countries in the world,” he said in that moment.

Professor Arnon Afek, deputy director of the Schiba Hospital near Tel Aviv, sees several reasons for the particularly successful course of the vaccination campaign in Israel. “First of all, we have a very strong public health system, with health insurance for all citizens,” says the former director general of the Ministry of Health. The model is based on the German system, with health insurance companies and hospitals. “The German Jews who emigrated to Israel brought it with them and installed it here.” Additionally, Israel is a high-tech country with world-class medical equipment and excellent storage options for the corona vaccine.

Furthermore, Israelis are a very committed and agile people who can react quickly and effectively to crisis situations, says Afek. Many nurses, for example, often voluntarily stayed for one more shift after work was done so they could vaccinate more people. “They all went to war together: the war against the coronavirus.”

Last but not least, Israel is a very small country that is not divided into federal states. “It is easier to vaccinate the population quickly than in a large country like Germany with more than 80 million inhabitants.” According to information from the daily “Jediot Achronot”, Biontech-Pfizer and Moderna see Israel as an ideal “pilot project” to quickly demonstrate the success of their vaccines, precisely because of these prerequisites.

According to media reports, Israel pays a price 40 percent higher than the United States for the Biontech Pfizer vaccine, and the difference with Europe is even greater. Israel pays the equivalent of almost 23 euros for a dose. According to a list accidentally published by Belgian Finance Secretary Eva De Bleeker, a dose in Europe costs only 12 euros.

At around one million, the number of people vaccinated against Corona in Israel so far is already more than double the number of people who have been infected since the start of the pandemic (more than 426,000). Around 153,400 people were vaccinated on Thursday alone.

More than ten percent of the population, including more than 40 percent of those over 60, have already received the first dose of vaccine. Israel wants to vaccinate its risk groups as soon as possible, then loosen the crown’s restrictions and get the economy running again. People who have been vaccinated twice must receive a “green passport” from mid-January, which gives them various freedoms. Such as the exemption from the quarantine obligation for citizens when entering Israel or when coming into contact with someone infected with corona.

Netanyahu was repeatedly criticized for his crown policy. He refused, for example, to impose selective closures on residential areas with many strictly religious Jews, even though infection rates were particularly high there. His critics say he feared ultra-Orthodox parties would withdraw their automatic support.

Now Netanyahu wants to score with the impressive vaccination campaign. On March 23, Israel will elect a new parliament for the fourth time in two years. Netanyahu, against whom a process of corruption is developing, fights for his political survival. Political scientist Jonathan Rynhold sees Netanyahu’s approach to the vaccination campaign as a clear “strategy to demonstrate that he is the most efficient leader and protects the public from within and without.” (sda / dpa)