Covid-19 news from Israel

Israel: Vaccination Is “Moral Duty” – Refuseniks To Be “Left Behind”

Richie Allen,

23 February, 2021

On Sunday, Israel rolled out a digital vaccination pass that enables citizens to access gyms, swimming pools and hotels. If you cannot prove that you had the jab, you’re not getting in.

The vaccine pass has been dubbed “The Green Passport.” The vaccinated can download it through an app run by the health ministry, but it can also be printed out on paper.

As the Green Passport was unveiled, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein declared that; “Getting vaccinated is a moral duty. It is part of our mutual responsibility.” He also said that those who refuse the jab will be “left behind.”

The Israeli Police are on the lookout for Green Passport forgeries. Citizens have been told that attempting to gain entry to a venue with a forgery is a criminal offence.

As I mentioned in previous articles, the UK government is determining whether to follow Israel’s lead. Anti-passport protests in Israel have been sporadic. Israeli’s seem resigned to it all. What of the Irish or the British? Will vaccine passports be the final straw, or will there be a collective sigh and a shrug of the shoulders followed by acquiescence? Time will tell.

Y Net,

24 February, 2021

The United States' infectious diseases expert Dr. Anthony Fauci is full of praise for Israel’s “extraordinarily good" vaccination campaign, but believes that the world still has a long way to go before it sees an end to the pandemic that has now been raging for more than a year.

“I don’t think we should declare that we’re nearing the end,” says Fauci, despite more people receiving vaccines every day.

“We’re certainly seeing in most countries -- in the United States for sure, and also definitely in Israel, probably to a greater extent than any place else -- a sharp decline in the daily cases of the SARS-CoV-2,” he tells i24NEWS. 

“In the United States, the background level of daily cases was so extraordinarily high for such a long period of time,” he says. “We were having between 300,000 and up to sometimes 400,000 cases per day.”

“We’re now down to a weekly average of about 65,000, which is terrific compared to where we were, but terrible when you think in terms of what that means 65,000 new infections a day,” Fauci says. 

The 80-year-old Fauci has served seven American presidents and has been the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases since 1984.

He was invited by new U.S. President Joe Biden to become his administration's chief medical advisor and take center stage in the fight against coronavirus after a rocky stint under former president Donald Trump, who undermined his follow-the-science approach to the pandemic.

Fauci now advises patience and reason when advocating inoculation to those who are wary of the vaccines perhaps due to the speed with which they were produced.

“If they’re hesitant because they believe it went too fast, you need to take the time to explain … that speed was not sacrificing safety. Nor was it sacrificing scientific integrity,” he says.

Then-President Donald Trump walks past Dr. Anthony Fauci after addressing the coronavirus task force daily briefing at the White House, March 2020

(Photo: Reuters)

Fauci hails the swift development of the vaccines as “the result of extraordinary advances in vaccine platform technology and the development of various immunogens that has taken place over a decade or more.”

"It is certainly absolutely essential to get vaccinated," he says. "We are in the earlier phase of the evolution of variants and the more you suppress the replication of virus in whatever country you’re in but hopefully globally, the less chance there is of the evolution of variants."

Fauci is full of praise for Israel’s world-leading vaccination campaign, which has seen more than half of the eligible population already receive at least one of the two-dose inoculations made by Pfizer or Moderna.

An Israeli man is vaccinated in a Tel Aviv bar as part of a joint drive by the municipality and local venues

(Photo: Moti Kimchi)

According to Fauci, Israel's national healthcare system has contributed to the high rate of vaccination.

“You have a healthcare system that’s uniform and when you want to get something done, you just say this is the way we’re going to do it and you do it," he says.

"And the citizens of Israel, the people there, are used to that, that’s the way they have been... .addressing their health issues for a considerable period of time.”

“People listen; they get vaccinated,” he says. “And right now I believe you’re way up there in the number of vaccines per 100 people is somewhere over 80 I think. It’s just extraordinarily good,” unlike the situation in the U.S., which has "some problems," he said.

Coronavirus vaccines administered in Washington State retirement home in December 2021

(Photo: AFP)

Fauci's own efforts to stem the spread of the virus have also been recognized in Israel.

Last week, he was awarded a $1 million prize from the Tel Aviv University-based Dan David Foundation, for seminal advancements in immunology and for being a “consummate model of leadership and impact in public health.”

The foundation said he had earned the recognition over a lifetime of leadership on HIV research and AIDS relief, as well as his advocacy for the vaccines against COVID-19.

In its statement, the foundation did not mention Trump, but credited Fauci with “courageously defending science in the face of uninformed opposition during the challenging COVID crisis.”

https://www.ynetnews.com/article/BJLgRv7fO

TEL AVIV, Israel -- Dr. Anthony Fauci has won the $1 million Dan David Prize for “defending science” and advocating for vaccines now being administered worldwide to fight the coronavirus pandemic.

The Israel-based Dan David Foundation on Monday named President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser as the winner of one of three prizes. It said he had earned the recognition over a lifetime of leadership on HIV research and AIDS relief, as well as his advocacy for the vaccines against COVID-19.

In its statement, the private foundation did not mention former President Donald Trump, who undermined Fauci's follow-the-science approach to the pandemic. But it credited Fauci with "courageously defending science in the face of uninformed opposition during the challenging COVID crisis.”

“As the COVID-19 pandemic unraveled, (Fauci) leveraged his considerable communication skills to address people gripped by fear and anxiety and worked relentlessly to inform individuals in the United States and elsewhere about the public health measures essential for containing the pandemic’s spread,” the foundation's awards committee said, praising Fauci for "speaking truth to power in a highly charged political environment.”

https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/fauci-wins-million-israeli-prize-defending-science-75906107

https://www.israelhayom.com/2021/02/24/pm-to-israel-hayom-israeli-children-could-get-vaccine-before-summer/

https://simpleflying.com/israir-vaccine-only-domestic-flights/

https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/el-al-becomes-worlds-first-airline-with-100-percent-staff-vaccination-658830

https://www.jpost.com/breaking-news/mobileye-to-ban-employees-not-vaccinated-for-coronavirus-660027