Last week, the European Commission admitted its failures in rolling out COVID vaccinations. Some 18 million doses (first and second) of the vaccine have been deployed when, with a population of some 105 million people deemed high-risk, the EU needs about 210,000. Considering the pace of agreements and shipments, it looks like only some 100,000 will be delivered by the end of March. In the most optimistic scenario, only in September will European countries have enough vaccine doses for half of their elderly populations. According to critics, the failure stemmed from a lack of comprehension of the emergency that was reflected in an absence of life-or-death conduct, which led to bureaucratic tangles that seriously held up the purchase of the vaccines.
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At a time when other countries are fighting for vaccines, a phenomenon already termed "vaccine nationalism" that poses a threat to global responsibility for one another, Israel received enough doses for its entire adult population thanks to a correct reading of the situation and rapid and determined action taken by the prime minister and the Health Ministry.
While the world is fighting a war to end the pandemic using vaccines they can't obtain, Israel is offering them on silver platters. But locally, it's seen as something unremarkable, at best. For weeks, we have witnessed attempts to break down the public's willingness to be vaccinated. News programs competed with each other over who could provide the bigger counter-point to experts, who would give anti-vaxxers a bigger stage, and who would hold absurd discussions about experiments on human beings and who would present the purchase agreements with the vaccine manufacturers in the most suspicious light. There were also a number of politicians who thus far have not made a single appeal to the public to get vaccinated. Even when they are given opportunities, at the most they managed to eke out statements about not "opposing" vaccines, but said nothing encouraging them.
As if that weren't enough, the closer we get to the election, the louder various vested interests repeat that Netanyahu's political fate depends on the success of the vaccination campaign. In other words, it's not about the citizens of Israel, not about lifting the cloud of death and serious illness that hangs over their heads, not about reopening schools and businesses – it's about Netanyahu. The death toll, along with the lack of encouragement for vaccines, never looked so blatantly political.
In the last few days, there's been another development. Nearly 80% of Israelis age 60 and over have already received both doses of the COVID vaccine and nearly 90% have received at least the first dose, which is reversing the trend of who gets sick: Israelis 60 and over, who are mostly vaccinated, are contracting the virus less often and being hospitalized less than the rest of the population, who haven't. The vaccine works. One group is on its way out of danger and other groups are on their heels. So headlines are changing, as are the claims, and pundits are starting to ask why, if the vaccines are so effective, isn't the government reopening the economy? The counters of the dead are silent, the anti-vaxxers have been censored. If we're starting to talk about the "failures" of reopening the economy, has the campaign been a success?
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