TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) – When it comes to fighting the coronavirus, Israel is discovering the limits of vaccines.
The country famous for its high-tech feats and spirit of innovation is home to the world’s fastest vaccination campaign, fueled from the top by national pride and a deep desire to start “coming back to life”, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
But experts say the country’s reopening will still take months, complicated by coronavirus mutations that have spread from Britain and South Africa, a refusal by some sectors to adhere to safety rules and fluctuations in the rate of vaccination of people with less than 60 years.
While the government is expected to start easing a third national blockade in the coming days, it is likely that there will be more partial closings as the threat diminishes and diminishes.
“This will be a balancing act,” said Eyal Leshem, director of the Center for Travel Medicine and Tropical Diseases at Sheba Medical Center.
In an impressive feat, more than a third of the 9.3 million Israelis received at least one injection in a few weeks, and more than 1.9 million received both doses, perhaps putting the country on track to inoculate almost all of its population adult until the end of March.
Along with praise for its speed, Israel has been criticized globally for excluding Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and the blocked Gaza Strip. The situation drew attention to the global disparity in access to vaccines between rich and poor countries.
Human rights groups say Israel has an obligation, as an occupying power, to vaccinate Palestinians. Israel denies having such a responsibility and says its priority is its own citizens. However, this week, Israel for the first time transferred 5,000 doses of the Modern vaccine for the Palestinian Authority to inoculate medical workers.
In Israel, for the first time, researchers are beginning to see the effects of vaccinations, giving other nations a very early glimpse of what may be coming.
Netanyahu said on Thursday that among people over the age of 60, the first group vaccinated, serious cases of hospitalizations have dropped 26% and confirmed infections have fallen 45% in the last 16 days.
“This is a direct result of vaccinations,” he said. “Vaccines work.”
But other key indicators, including deaths and new infections, remain high, in part because of rapidly spreading mutations and a month’s delay before the vaccine shows all its benefits.
Israel has reported about 7,000 new infections a day, one of the highest rates in the developed world. Nearly 5,000 people died, more than a quarter of them in January alone.
Israel has certain advantages that suggest that its success in vaccinations cannot be easily duplicated elsewhere. It is small, with 9.3 million people. It has a centralized and digitized health care system, provided through only four HMOs. And its leader, Netanyahu, made the vaccination campaign a centerpiece of his candidacy for re-election in March, personally negotiating agreements with the CEOs of Pfizer and Moderna.
Still, experts around the world are watching anxiously.
“Israel’s aggressive inoculation program demonstrates that it is really possible for a country to get vaccines into people’s arms quickly and efficiently,” said Jonathan Crane, a bioethicist at Emory University in Atlanta. In an email, he praised the centralized effort, compared to the “fragmented” way that vaccines in countries like the United States are being distributed across multiple jurisdictions.
Even with these first signs of success, it is increasingly clear that there will be no pandemic the next day, a celebratory moment in which people are released to return to work, hold large family gatherings or resume the social life they once knew.
The reopening will depend on many factors, including efforts to prevent the spread of highly contagious variants and whether the public takes precautions. Many Israelis were horrified this week at scenes of great ultra-Orthodox funerals for two revered rabbis, with most mourners without a mask.
Some parts of the population, including the Arab and ultra-Orthodox sectors and younger adults, have shown an apparent reluctance to get vaccinated, which can also hinder the effort to achieve “herd immunity” and stop the virus.
“The whole of Europe is waiting for vaccines, and people don’t want to be vaccinated here?” Sara Baruch said after receiving her second dose on Wednesday in Tel Aviv. “Is weird.”
She said it is a “big mistake” if the trend continues: “We will not be able to go on vacation and return to the normal life we had before”.
The vaccination campaign has become a feature of pop culture and a source of national pride. The Israelis proudly post photos on social media showing they are being vaccinated, and an HMO serves cappuccinos afterwards so that people can be monitored for side effects before leaving.
Experts recommend a gradual reopening of the country, although political leaders make the final decision. The closings and reopens, experts say, will be a cost-benefit analysis that will change according to the course of the outbreak and the state of the economy.
Dr. Nadav Davidovitch, a member of a government advisory panel, said that young children, along with vaccinated high school students over 16, should be allowed to return to school in the first stage, and only teachers who have been vaccinated should be in the class. Street shops and restaurants can only open for delivery, followed in later stages by shopping malls and cultural events open only to people who have been vaccinated.
He said the steps should be staggered every two weeks, with a constant eye on infection rates, tests and more vaccinations. Public internal and external meetings should continue to be limited for a time, he said. Social distance and masks will be needed in the near future.
“It will be very gradual in the coming months,” said Davidovitch, director of the school of public health at Ben-Gurion University in Israel. “Vaccines are very important, but they will not solve all the problems.”
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Associated Press writers Josef Federman, Isaac Scharf and Ilan Ben Zion contributed.
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