A teacher who provided parents with information on a campaign to vaccinate children aged 5 to 11 on school grounds in accordance with government guidelines has been accused of behaving like a Nazi by one of the fathers in a class WhatsApp group, Channel 12 News reported Sunday.
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"Stop murdering children! You are an accomplice to a crime. Every time you share [information on the vaccination campaign], you help spread something that causes harm in children. I ask you not to send us this garbage and certainly not to vaccinate either at the school or these poor kids. You will be held accountable in the end. People don't forget," the father said, according to the Channel 12 News report.
In response, Channel 12 News reported the teacher wrote: "You are threatening a state employee. That is illegal and you are prohibited from doing so."
The father then left a voice message saying, "That's exactly what the Nazis said: I was sent to do it. I didn't do anything on my own. I received an order. I carried it out."
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry released new data on the state of the coronavirus pandemic in Israel ahead of ministry officials' scheduled meeting with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett Monday.
According to the data, Israel's infection rate now stands at 1.87%. Of the 114,958 people who tested for the virus Sunday, 1,760 were found to have COVID-19.
There are 13,053 active cases of the virus. The number of people in serious condition declined from 94 on Saturday to 87. Thirty-eight of those in serious condition are on ventilators.
The reproduction rate remains stable at 1.41.
Although 1,344,770 Israelis have recovered from the disease since the outbreak of the pandemic, 8,242 have died. Four of those victims passed away over the last week.
There are three communities now designated "red" according to the government's traffic-light system for ranking authorities by infection rates: Maaleh Adumim, Rishon Letzion, and Tzur Hadassah. Twenty-three communities are now ranked "orange," and 53 are "yellow."
In an interview with Army Radio Monday morning, Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz said, "We are contemplating changing the quarantine policy in the coming days so that a vaccinated person who comes into contact with a confirmed coronavirus carrier does not need to enter a full quarantine. We are thinking of a return to the system [that was in place] in the previous wave, where someone exposed to a carrier can take a test and exit the quarantine."
He said, "The considerations are purely medical considerations. We are consulting on this issue also with international officials: experts, scientists, and doctors. This is [Health Ministry Director-General] Professor [Nachman] Ash's decision to make alone.
"I will cautiously say that there is an indication the Omicron [variant] is less violent but because it is very contagious and there are a lot of unvaccinated people, for them the illness could cause serious illness. There is evidence of an increase in hospitalizations in Britain and the US, that is why we need to go and get vaccinated," Horowitz said.
According to Health Ministry data released Monday, 6,513,576 Israelis have received at least one dose of the virus, and 5,886,335 have received two doses. Over 4 million Israelis – 4,200,101 – have also received a recommended booster shot of the vaccine.
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