We are a stiff-necked people. This week, we published data on the amount of money Israel spent buying COVID vaccines. Not 24 hours went by, and already there were horror headlines about the surplus that would have to be thrown away, and "senior officials" who claimed that Israel over-committed to Pfizer.
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How symbolic is it, just before Passover, to complain about what we have, after we have been liberated from bondage. The stiff-necked people never stopped complaining and venting about Moses and Aaron and the tough desert conditions, even after they led them out of Egypt. Now the same people, who have hopefully been liberated from COVID, dares complain about surplus vaccines and a waste of money.
It's not particularly surprising behavior. This is the same pattern we saw throughout the pandemic – spoiled, irresponsible behavior. When infection was raging and mortality was up, people wondered why the economy wasn't being shut down and went to any TV studio available to scream about the government abandoning us. When infection dropped and the lockdown started to have an effect, we saw harsh criticism about why things weren't opening, "if it's possible."
Last November, the prophets of doom warned us that the government was doing everything badly in terms of reaching out to the vaccine manufacturers. "All the problems of the COVID crisis will pale in comparison to the vaccine failure," MK Ofer Shelach said in November. Media darling Professor Haggai Levin predicted with confidence that we weren't even close to a vaccine and that Israel "wasn't in line for the Pfizer vaccine" and could not handle the logistics of it. Of course, we can't forget MK Yair Lapid, who stated categorically that "In January, we might get a box of five vaccines, and the rest after everyone else." Less than half a year later, 4 million people in Israel have been vaccinated, and we can and should be humble.
How much has Israel spent on vaccines? This week, the answer was given to the Knesset Finance Committee. Thus far, Israel has spent 2.6 billion shekels ($789 million) on buying vaccines from the three manufacturers. Another 2.5 billion shekels ($759 million) is earmarked to be spent on vaccines in the future. Has every last drop of every dose been used? Of course not. But who cares? We are the first country to get back to normal among the countries that did not instate a zero-spread policy during the pandemic. To compare, and to put things in proportion a bit, the weekly cost of shutting down the economy is estimated at 5 to 6 billion shekels ($1.5 billion-$1.8 billion).
And now that the figures are in front of us, we can arrive at priorities. Should we give precedence to the "over-commitment" to Pfizer and a certain return to normal, or would it be better to flex to other vaccine manufacturers and get a repeat of COVID, like the one vaccine-hungry Europe is now seeing?
By the way, to everyone who is complaining about the surplus vaccines, when the prime minister wanted to use Israel's vaccine advantage to benefit its international position, the Anyone-but-Bibi camp stuck spokes in the wheels and torpedoed the idea, going through the attorney general. And now? After Israel has ensured that it has enough vaccines for now, we can start the privileged discussion about what to do with the extras. I know what I least want to hear: from people who are wise in hindsight or in the opposition. You don't need to vote for Netanyahu to understand that he accomplished something historic.
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