Since the global launch of the new crown vaccine on Dec. 8 last year, no one could have imagined that Israel, which arrived later, would overtake the United Kingdom, the United States and European Union countries to become the country with the highest vaccination rate. As of Feb. 14, the vaccination rate for Israeli citizens has exceeded 75 percent.
Compared to the global vaccination rate of just over 2 percent, Israel is riding high and has left all other countries far behind, making the data from Israel the main evidence for pharmaceutical companies to prove the effectiveness of their vaccines. However, this 75 percent does not take into account foreigners in the country. As a foreigner studying in Israel, I have been turned away from vaccination centers three times.
Data for vaccines
Israel’s ability to preempt competition with the European Union to lock up the first batch of mass-produced Pfizer vaccine, and thus become the first country to use it, began with a data trade.
In a media interview on Jan. 7, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu revealed that Pfizer had agreed to supply Israel with a total of 10 million doses of the vaccine at a rate of 400,000 to 700,000 doses per week. In exchange, Israel would be required to submit vaccination user data to the vaccine company for vaccine studies, including gender, age, medication history, and post-injection physical reactions, side effects, and data on new crown infections, among other things.
The basis for this data to be used as leverage is Israel’s well-developed healthcare system, which records all Israelis’ medical history from birth, vaccination status, etc.
● Vaccination site / World Talk
Today, Israel is an important part of Pfizer’s vaccine database. According to statistics, the first group of vaccinated people (over 60 years old and in high-risk occupations) saw a 53% reduction in new crown infections. Critical cases have been reduced by 30%. In addition, vaccination data provided by Maccabi, one of the four major insurance companies, shows that the rate of new crown infections is only 0.1% (544/523,000) among its enrollees who have received two doses of the vaccine.
Based on the data so far, this data-for-vaccine deal is a win-win for everyone.
It’s very un-“Netanyahu” to spend a lot of money on vaccines
The willingness to share data and a well-developed healthcare system alone is still not enough for Israel to get vaccine priority from Pfizer. The key to everything is still money.
Earlier, an Israeli official revealed that the cost of obtaining the new crown vaccine in his country was $30/visit, while the local media revealed that the real cost was even higher – $47/visit. The price of obtaining these vaccines in the EU is $15.50/visit. Since the vaccines are free, the cost of procuring them all comes from insurance companies and the government.
“It’s very un-Netanyahu to spend three times more than the EU to buy vaccines for all Israelis,” Dor, a left-wing Israeli Jew, said in an interview with World Talk. He was organizing a march that day against the Jewish settlement occupation of East Jerusalem.” Let’s not forget that what has put Netanyahu on a firm footing in Israeli politics is his market economy reforms, and he is an unabashed proponent of capitalism.”
Dor was referring to the sweeping economic reforms undertaken by Netanyahu, then Israel’s finance minister, at the beginning of the 21st century – downsizing state-owned industries and freezing government spending for three years, while simultaneously expanding the privatization of state-owned industries, including banks, oil companies, and even Israel Airways, among others.
But in the tug-of-war over universal vaccines, Netanyahu has gone against the grain, not only spending several times more than the EU for priority access to vaccines, but also offering various incentives to promote universal vaccination. Earlier he let it be known in the media that those who complete all two doses of the vaccination will receive a green pass with which they can enter museums, national parks and other public facilities.
●Author’s certificate of vaccination / World Talk
Early years of studying and working in the United States, where television media is highly developed, taught Netanyahu how to use the media to please voters. Many Israelis believe there are many “benefits” to getting vaccinated, and getting a green passport that entitles you to access public facilities such as museums and national parks is one of them.
“Netanyahu is doing this for next month’s election. He doesn’t have to, because we don’t have anyone else to choose from but him,” Dor said in his analysis.
In the past year, Netanyahu has been “pulling the hatchet” because of the Epidemic, and until now, the number of new cases in Israel has remained in the four digits every day, and Netanyahu has defied the opposition and insisted on extending the national blockade three times, coupled with his own corruption scandal …… Thus, the vaccine has become a bargaining chip for Netanyahu to turn the tide against the wind.
So far, Netanyahu seems to be successful. The new crown vaccine is like a shot in the arm, evoking the nationalist sentiment of many Israelis, especially the collective memory of the four Middle East wars.
“In those days (during the four Middle East wars), men went to Sinai or northern Syria to fight, and women stayed Home, taking care of the elderly and children, waiting for them to win the war. It can be said that all people participated in the war.” Whenever he tells International Students about this history, Simon Epstein, a nearly 80-year-old Israeli political expert and professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, reveals a bit of pride, “This universal vaccination reminds me of those wartime states.”
For Israeli Jews born in times of peace, the universal vaccine also instills a sense of national pride. They are willing to get vaccinated sooner rather than later, because “we are an innovative nation and we are willing to try all new things.”
The Curious Case of Vaccination
Looking at the numbers alone, hundreds of thousands of Israelis are vaccinated every day on average, with the highest number of vaccinations occurring on Dec. 24, when 700,000 doses were administered. For international students and foreign workers, however, there was a considerable wait before the vaccinations were scheduled.
Israel is organizing this vaccination in cooperation with four major public insurance companies. Theoretically, these four companies cover basically all Israeli citizens, and the vaccines are distributed to these four companies upon arrival by air, with each company then decentralizing the vaccines to the community hospitals according to the number of participants. The community hospitals then organize the vaccinations according to the priority given to people over 60 years old, health care workers and teachers. But my university’s default insurance company for international students was not one of the four major ones.
By January, the number of new arrivals in Israel was still increasing daily, peaking at 8,000, a high rate of infection for a small country with a population of 9.3 million.
Many international students, including myself, were already restless and started to find their own ways to get vaccinated, but were repeatedly denied by community hospitals and makeshift vaccination centers on the grounds that they were not “Big 4” participants, so I decided to switch my insurance company to Clalit, the largest of the “Big 4”. After the insurance went into effect, I took my passport to the largest vaccination center in Jerusalem, which was converted from a gymnasium, and was told that “there is no policy for foreigners” and that I could not receive the injection. This was despite gossip that foreigners had paid 700 shekels (about 1,400 RMB) privately for the first injection.
Then some international students got the vaccine for free at a private clinic in Herzeliya, north of Tel Aviv, and I decided to take my chances as well. When I arrived at the vaccination center early in the morning, I found out that the policy had changed that day and that the vaccination was no longer given to foreigners other than diplomats. However, a kind staff member told me I could try my luck when the center was about to close.
●The author in the vaccination line / World Talk
Since most Israelis go to community hospitals closer to their homes for both illness and vaccinations, this private hospital has few patients on weekdays. However, the hospital has a partnership with four major insurance companies and enjoys a daily supply of several thousand doses of the vaccine, which can’t be used up.
The Pfizer vaccine, which needs to be kept refrigerated at -70 degrees Celsius, must be used within an hour once it is thawed, otherwise it will become ineffective, and as a result, hundreds of shots of the vaccine are thrown away every day at this hospital. In order not to create waste, from the second week after vaccination began nationwide, the hospital decided to give the extra vaccine to foreigners when the vaccine stock was sufficient for that day.
I received my first vaccination that afternoon, as expected. And an appointment was made for the next day 21 days later. As of press Time, the school has sent an email and will soon begin organizing group vaccinations for international students.
What about Palestine?
While the entire Israeli population is in a “vaccine frenzy,” the Palestinians, who also live in the land, are in a different situation. The vaccine threshold divides these Palestinians into three categories: those who live in Israel, those who live in the West Bank and Gaza, and those who live “illegally” in Israel.
For Palestinians living in Israel with an Israeli ID (non-Israeli), if they are insured by one of the four major public insurance companies, they are entitled to vaccination at the same time as Israeli Jews. The problem group in Israel are those who live “illegally”. Most of them come from West Bank cities, are married to Palestinians in Israel, but have not yet been granted residency, and in this state, no insurance company will cover them. There is no way to get the vaccine.
Vaccine programs for this group can still be delayed, and the real headache for Israel, I fear, is for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza. While Israel leads the world in vaccination rates, it has also been condemned from the international community. Israel has a responsibility under international law as the “occupying power” to provide public health care to those under its control, and they have called for the same standard of vaccine to be given to the Palestinians as to the Israelis, i.e. Pfizer vaccine, not the Russian vaccine.
But the Israeli side corrected that they have a responsibility under international law to give medical help to the Palestinians in the occupied territories, but there is no need to provide the same grade of vaccine. They also rehashed the Oslo agreement, saying that according to the agreement, all the occupied areas were returned to the Palestinian Authority. Today, they no longer have any medical obligations to what was once an occupied area, now the territory of the Palestinian Authority.
And right now, it’s very difficult for the Palestinian Authority to get large quantities of vaccines. Vaccines like Pfizer’s, which need to be kept at -70 degrees, are almost impossible to transport and keep in Palestine because of the limited medical facilities in the territory. The first 10,000 doses of the most viable Russian vaccine arrived in Palestine on February 4th, but this is a drop in the bucket for Palestine (West Bank + Gaza), which has a population of nearly four million.
Whether due to international pressure or internal security concerns, Israel is bound to assist the Palestinian authorities in obtaining the vaccine in the future – after all, nearly 130,000 Palestinians cross the wall every day to work in Israel, and the Palestinians living on this side of the wall have a need to visit their families in the West Bank. It’s safe to say that if the Palestinian epidemic is not contained, Israel’s day will not be any better.
While new crowns and vaccines have become tools for politicians to manipulate voters’ national sentiments, these tools are telling them that no country can go it alone.
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