Moderna love: What the press is saying on November 17 By JOSHUA DAVIDOVICH @ TOI

1. Needle in a haystack: Pharma giant Moderna’s announcement Monday that its vaccine is 94.5% effective according to preliminary results is greeted with much excitement in the Israeli press. Thanks to the fact that Israel had already forged a deal with Moderna, coverage is markedly different (yet still slightly more subdued) than the recent announcement from Pfizer, shifting from “Yay, how can we get our hands on it?” to “Yay, when can we get our hands on it?” “A shot of hope,” cries the front page headline in Yedioth Ahronoth. It doesn’t hurt that the company’s chief scientist happens to be Tal Zaks, a local boy done good, who makes the Hebrew-language media rounds. Zaks tells Yedioth that Moderna plans on having between 500 million and a billion doses produced by the end of 2021. And even better, some in Israel won’t have to wait that long. “Israel was one of the first countries to hook up with us, and will be among the first to get the vaccine,” he tells the paper. Zaks tells Channel 12 news that “the supply to Israel is expected to come out of the first shipments from the European production line set up in Switzerland. I hope this happens at the beginning of 2021.” In Haaretz, reporter Ronni Linder dives into how Israel ended up making a deal with Moderna, calling it a “gamble that paid off,” and indicates it’s no coincidence that Zaks is Israeli, as a team appointed to lead the search tried to figure out which companies would talk to it and which it could invest in. “The team tried to contact dozens of companies to piece together information about their work. Moderna was one of the more accessible companies among those that seemed to have a chance of producing a vaccine. This was partly due to the fact that the company’s chief medical officer, Dr. Tal Zaks, is Israeli,” she reports. “We held some in-depth talks, and utilized links to Jewish people and Israelis who are connected to the company,” an unnamed source linked to the team tells the paper. According to the paper, Israel can only buy 2 million doses, to vaccinate 1 million people. Nonetheless, a Health Ministry official tells Israel Hayom that “I can’t say that by Passover we’ll all be vaccinated, but I’m optimistic that within a year this will be behind us.” 2. I never promised you a dose garden: Channel 13 quotes Israeli officials expressing regret that Israel hadn’t purchased more doses from Moderna. However, it says Israel is in talks with AstraZeneca, expected to be the next major pharma firm to publish its preliminary results. The channel reports, without a source, that medical teams, high-risk groups and pregnant women will be among the first to be vaccinated. That may just be another case of the channel reporting its own speculation as fact. Haaretz notes that no actual decision has been made yet, in fact: “Generally, people in high-risk groups and medical personnel are inoculated first, but the considerations are more complicated. Beyond determining who receives the first 4.3 million doses (out of more than nine million Israelis), Israel must also determine the order of vaccination within these groups: Who gets the vaccine immediately and who must wait several weeks or months? The paper also notes a number of other unknowns: “There are also questions regarding the safety of the vaccine for certain population groups. Is the vaccine safe and effective for people with underlying medical issues? And if so, for how long? It must be noted that these vaccines were developed with unprecedented speed, compressing clinical trials that usually take years into only a few months.” Others also caution against getting too worked up over the Moderna announcement. Prof. Hagai Levine, the media’s go to nabob of negativity on public health matters, tells Army Radio: “We don’t know if the vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer prevent transmission, just sickness. We’ll need a large number of vaccines to get over the pandemic.” “Despite the promises it’s hard to see Israel being first in the global line for in-demand vaccines,” writes Yedioth columnist Sarit Rosenblum, “and it’s hard to predict unplanned events of various types that can affect

1 the global vaccination effort against the coronavirus, from problems that may be discovered after its use to changes in the virus that can negatively affect its effectiveness.” Israel Hayom’s Ran Reznick expresses fears that “the happy announcements of the pharma firms will put the nation into a state of euphoria or complacency, as if we can already take off our masks, go back to normal and count down the days until the vaccines come and heal us.” 3. A clinic on buying drugs: Kan’s Shaul Amsterdamski lauds the government for getting on the Moderna train, and uses it as a counterpoint to the way the government dealt with Pfizer and as a management lesson for the government, or a child. “No middle of the night talks between the the CEO and the prime minister just to discover that his dad has Jewish heritage,” he says. “Already at the start of the pandemic, some six months ago, the government closed a deal with Moderna. Just good government work. That’s how it works. And when it works we celebrate you. Want us to celebrate you more? Just do your work as it should be done. That’s it.” Israel Hayom columnist Amnon Lord also lauds Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and other ministers for steering the COVID ship correctly, despite the dastardly designs of uppity leftist bureaucrats like the attorney general and others whom he somehow shoehorns into his column as the villains (really). “It’s hard to see anyone in the peanut gallery of experts and politicians trying to hitch a ride on the health crisis who would react like Netanyahu did. The atmosphere around him is one of ridiculous revenge and is detached from reality. Naftali Bennett, Dina Zilber, [Avichai] Mandelblit and the black shirt people are all in the same camp: Either they are detached from the main goal of Israeli society, or they are intentionally working to sabotage a leadership that needs to lead the fight against the virus.” ToI’s Haviv Rettig Gur goes through all the ways the government is actually falling down on the job, with no budget, an emptying Health Ministry and gridlock thanks to an endless power struggle at the top. “A strong professional bureaucracy and a fundamentally healthy economy – an economy strengthened by the efforts and policies of Netanyahu himself over many years – have tempered the pain from the pandemic and would, in other times, surely see Israel through to a robust recovery,” he writes. “But Israel’s never-ending political crisis now threatens to gut that very bureaucracy and wreak populist havoc with that economy. By the time that becomes clear to overseas analysts, it may be too late for Israelis. The damage will have been done.” 4. Notorious BIG: Meanwhile, Israelis are showing how responsible and patient they can be by rushing to shops given the okay to open Tuesday, or opening up themselves against regulations to protest the fact that they have been asked to stay closed as part of a rapidly dissipating national lockdown. Several news outlets publish pictures and video from a BIG strip mall near Haifa, with what look to be dozens of people crammed together trying to get into a store. Kan reports that the crowd of some 150 people, some of whom had been waiting since the early hours of the morning, was surrounding a sports store in the shopping center clamoring to get in. Channel 12 publishes pictures of a BIG shopping center in Tiberias where the parking lot looks like it is Black Friday (which is now a thing here), and video from a BIG in Ashdod where there appears to be less chaos, but just as long lines. “It’s crowded,” one almost-shopper tells the station: “I came to buy clothes for my grandkids, but I probably won’t wait in line. It’s scarier standing outside than inside the store. I don’t understand how with dozens of meters, just four people are allowed in at a time, and in a much smaller homegoods store, dozens go in at a time.” “Storming the stores,” reads a headline on Channel 13’s news website. The channel reports that the Fox chain’s response to the crowding isn’t to shut down and send everyone home for their own safety, but rather to extend hours until midnight. Mo’ problems, mo’ money. Meanwhile, the complaints of store owners left behind in the outdoor markets, or shuks, popular in some cities that are still not allowed to open grow even louder, especially thanks to the convenient news event of a protest at Tel Aviv’s Carmel Market, where some open anyway. One merchant tells Haaretz that she had no choice but to risk it and reopen: “I am living on pennies anyway. They have shut down our lives.”

2 The owner of a restaurant in the market tells Kan the whole thing is farkakteh, forcing residents of nearby working class neighborhoods to make their way to bigger and more crowded chain stores. “It can’t be that Rami Levy will be open, and Shufersal and BIG, and residents of the Kerem Hateimanim neighborhood will need to ride on a crowded bus to get to a supermarket with another 120 people. Enough already,” she says. Enjoy it while it lasts. Army Radio reports that the National Security Council is already drawing up plans for shutting things back down as infections go up. 5. Up, up and away: There’s one place that’s still free of COVID-19: Space. And that’s where the second Israeli astronaut ever is headed, hoping to be the first to also return, nearly 20 years after the tragic deaths of and the other crewmembers of the Shuttle Columbia. “The upcoming launch will put Eytan Stibbe on the International for 200 hours, which he will use to conduct a series of unprecedented experiments that are intended to advance Israeli technologies and scientific developments by researchers and startups,” ToI reports, adding that Ramon was Stibbe’s commander in the air force. Ron Livne, the head of an Israeli center named for Ramon and largely administered by his widow Rona, who died recently after years of promoting her husband’s memory, says that sending a second astronaut was her dream. “She would also say ‘I wish, what a dream. This is a chance for Israel to celebrate science, technology and education and one chapter of the story is missing.’ Rona would always be opening new chapters of the story of Ramon, another educational program, another school, another experiment in space, and she very much yearned for this moment. It would come up with every incoming science minister, and the whole space agency.” Unlike Ramon, Stibbe, who is a millionaire, will be funding the trip himself, and a number of outlets note that he may be on a flight with Tom Cruise, who is scheduled to blast off next year for a new movie role being made with NASA and SpaceX. Calcalist reports that the Science Ministry is attempting to piggyback on Stibbe’s trip and is trying to raise “tens of millions of shekels to fund the development, construction and launch of Israeli experiments with Stibbe, and educational activities which will accompany his stay in space.” According to the report, the ministry is attempting to get permission to expand the amount of cargo Stibbe is allowed to bring up to fit all the goodies in. While several news sites laud Stibbe as “plane-downing champ” for his exploits against enemy aircraft, Haaretz notes that he also has a reputation for selling arms to war-torn Angola. According to a 2019 report by the paper, Stibbe’s firm LR, founded with two other fighter pilots, “got involved in defense exports in Angola in the mid-80s and spent years massively arming the government there and training its troops. According to a variety of reports, the company sold Sukhoi 27 combat planes, artillery shells, and light weapons to the government. At the same time, the three founders also built airports and security systems and were involved in purchasing a plane for Jose Eduardo dos Santos, the president who ruled in Angola for 38 years through 2017. Some attribute his victory in the war to the country’s aerial armament, which LR greatly contributed to.” Channel 12’s Uri Isaac writes that Stibbe’s involvement in Angola should take him out of the running to be an Israeli astronaut, throwing his own words back at him about the importance of people in important positions having clean hands and strong ethics. “We wouldn’t think to promote a person like this to be an IDF officer, or an astronaut with the Israeli flag on his shoulder. Our representatives of earth, in the land of politics or space above, need to be, by his telling, spotless — practice what you preach. In this test, it seems Stibbe has already failed.”

Biden can stop Netanyahu from ‘Doing a Trump’ on Israeli democracy Chemi Shalev | Nov. 16, 2020 |

Just like his election campaign, Joe Biden’s transition to the White House is proceeding apace while keeping a low profile. The coronavirus pandemic is surging out of control in the U.S. and whatever is left of the media and 3 public’s attention is riveted on Donald Trump’s juvenile refusal – or inability – to accept his loss. The obsessive fascination with the 60-odd days left until Trump is slated to leave office is obscuring the profound turnaround expected in Biden’s full four years, in America, the world in general and Israel in particular. The powerful shift in policy and outlook between the outgoing and incoming administrations is a direct result of the deep and prevalent polarization in U.S. politics. It is compounded by the fact that Trump and Biden are total opposites in their ideology, values and character. Trump is cunning, amoral and self-absorbed; Biden cherishes family, empathy and humanity. Biden is a good and kind man at heart; Trump, judging by all available evidence, is simply bad, if not evil. Trump is an individualist, populist and in many ways an anarchist; he dreams of Making America Great and White Again. Biden is a creature of the establishment, a champion of compromise, agreement and teamwork; he dreams of a moral America, which is a fortress of democracy and a lighthouse of liberty that shines across the globe. Trump has never showed any special interest in Israel, but he is touted by Benjamin Netanyahu and the right wing as its savior and best friend ever. Biden, who is intimately equated with Israeli affairs and was known as one of its staunchest supporters on Capitol Hill throughout his 47 years in the Senate, is being met with suspicion and apprehension by Netanyahu and the right, hopefully with some justification. After all, Biden supports a two-state solution and opposes settlements and annexation. He sees Trump’s abandonment of the Iran deal as a fatal mistake, which only brought Tehran closer to a capability of manufacturing a nuclear weapon. Biden wants to repair ties with Europe, reengage with the United Nations and other international organizations, promote equal rights for women and minorities and shift the U.S. from the back to the front in the fight against global warming. In Israel’s Netanyahu-inspired zeitgeist, that makes him a naïve, knee jerk liberal who is dangerous by definition. Beyond the clear clash between their values, Biden’s inauguration on January 20 will immediately revoke the blanket immunity that Trump gave Netanyahu from international and U.S. criticism. It will erase the cover of legitimacy that Trump gave Netanyahu in Israeli public opinion for his crusades against democracy and the rule of law. Analogies with the unbridled and untethered rabble-rouser in the White House invariably cast Netanyahu in a more positive light; with Biden in charge the comparisons are bound to be less flattering. Throughout his decades of service in the Senate, moreover, Biden acquired a reputation for being a straight shooter who doesn’t mince words with both friend and foe. This is not the vulgar and usually deceitful “dugri” that Israelis adore in Trump, mistaking it for honesty: Biden tells hard truths, often difficult to digest, because “we’re all a family and that’s what families do,” as he would often tell pro-Israeli audiences. Even if he delays engaging with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict for tactical reasons, Biden would do well to remind Israelis that without an equitable solution, Israel is doomed to become either un-democratic or un- Jewish, as he’s often said before. He should explain to Israelis, as he said in his sermon-like victory speech in Delaware last week, that the “battle for the soul of America” – and by inference for the soul of Israel as well – is also a battle “to restore decency and defend democracy,” values and terms that have all but disappeared from the Israeli discourse in recent years. After beating Trump and hopefully saving U.S. democracy, Biden can show Israelis the way by simply talking to them, without actually “intervening” in their affairs. He might upset Netanyahu and anger Trump’s Israel fan club on the right, but he will inject an immediate dose of life-saving adrenalin to the beleaguered minority that shares his democratic ideals and liberal values. If right-wingers like to describe Trump as “good for the Jews,” Biden has an opportunity to prove right off the bat that just like in America, he’s going to “good for Israelis” of all stripes and colors.

Iran Closed in on Atomic Bomb in Trump Era: Now Israel's Challenge in Biden Era By Amos Yadlin N12 – November 11, 2020

With the confirmation of Joe Biden’s victory in the US presidential election, many voices began to emerge in Israel expressing concern that Israel’s diplomatic-security interests would suffer as a result of the administration change scheduled to take place in January 2021. I do not agree that the Trump administration was the friendliest to ever stand alongside Israel. Yes, Jerusalem and Washington shared similar views about 4 the current reality in the Middle East. The administration, headed by President Trump, moved the American embassy to Jerusalem, recognized Israeli sovereignty on the Golan Heights, blocked every anti-Israel resolution in international organizations and published a peace proposal that matched Israel’s approach on every significant parameter. Also, this administration completed the victory over ISIS and killed its leader, al-Baghdadi, and in contrast to his predecessor attacked Syria after that country used chemical weapons against its own civilians. More than anything, there were two important strategic moves that contributed much to furthering Israel’s goals: The first was furthering peace with the Emirates, Bahrain and Sudan (the word “peace”, which had long disappeared from the Israeli lexicon, has returned as a guiding value after a quarter-century of stalemate). The second process - leading a tough, aggressive stance against Iran, most notably withdrawing from the nuclear deal, re- establishing painful sanctions and assassinating Qasem Soleimani, who led Iran’s hegemony and reign of terror in the Middle East. At the same time, Trump, like Obama before him, led a strategy of disengaging the United States from the Middle East - and Russia and Iran stepped in to fill the vacuum. The strategy of “maximum pressure” on Iran didn’t achieve its goals -- the collapse of the regime or a change in its policy and behavior. When Trump leaves the White House Iran will be closer to establishing military nuclear abilities than they were in 2017. Furthermore, Trump didn’t really have a plan of operation deal with Iranian violations of the agreement and [Tehran’s] progress towards the nuclear threshold. As Joe Biden prepares to take office, it is important to remember and remind that he has been a close friend of Israel for decades, with a terrific voting record vis-à- vis the State of Israel for more than 40 years. It is important to remember that in the United States of 2020 there is bi-partisan agreement, Republicans and Democrats alike, about the overriding principles guiding American policy in the Middle East: No more wars (after two decades of unsuccessful wars in Afghanistan and Iraq), energy independence that means the United States does not have to make “tribute” payments to the Arab states [by purchasing oil], preventing Iran from obtaining military nuclear capabilities, pushing for peace and normalization between countries of this region is an important principle, even as a means to obtaining the other goals. As Israelis it is natural that the most critical issue for us is the new president’s anticipated attitude towards Israel -- but the Middle East is really not expected to occupy a high spot on President Biden’s list of priorities. That list is likely to be topped by domestic issues. Furthermore, when the administration does address foreign policy, it will do so first and foremost with China and that country’s global dominance. China is challenging the United States in every area: Business and economics, for the leadership of the global technology sector, military challenges--and more than anything and especially maintaining a differing view of the world order. Next on the new administration’s to-do list will be to deal with an aggressive and nuclear North Korea. In addition, the administration will focus on restoring US relationships with allies and returning to the agreements the United States walked out on, beginning with the Paris Agreement on climate change. Only then, after addressing all these issues, will the new administration get around to dealing with the Middle East and Israel. And even then, one should not expect dramatic shift in policy. The administration will re-stress the United States commitment to the two-state solution—some people lean (or perhaps want) towards forgetting that the Trump plan, too, is predicated on the notion of the two state solution. Like Trump, President- elect Biden knows that the Palestinians are responsible for the ongoing stalemate of the peace process: The split between Fatah and Hamas, Hamas’ refusal to disavow terror and to recognize Israel, the Palestinian Authority’s extreme stance during negotiations, and the fact that to date that same Authority has never responded to the proposal tabled by then Secretary of State John Kerry in 2014--all these make clear to the new administration what difficulties there are associated with renewing the peace process. Biden will not move the US Embassy back to Tel Aviv, but he certainly could renew aid to the PA and to UNRWA and reopen the PLO office in Washington. The main issue facing the Biden administration in the Middle East is not the Palestinian issue—President Trump blocked Israel‘s annexation plans in the West Bank- - but rather the Iranian issue. The new Democratic administration is identified closely with the 2015 nuclear agreement, and Biden has announced that he intends to renew the diplomatic channel and re-join the agreement. At the same time there are many people in the Democratic camp who understand that it would be unwise and even impossible to return to the nuclear agreement [in its original form]. The assumptions that formed the basis of that agreement have deteriorated: Iran has not become more moderate but rather the opposite--it has become more aggressive, the evidence obtained by the Mossad from

5 Tehran’s nuclear archives prove that Iran has both the knowledge and intention of developing nuclear weapons and in the original agreement there were violations on issues including oversight, research and development, especially what happens on the day after limits on Iran expire—the sunset clause. Furthermore, Iran violated the agreement: Today Tehran possesses 10 times more fissile material than is allowed by the agreement and more advanced centrifuges. That shortens the breakout time for a bomb. The critical and urgent challenge for the Israeli government vis-à-vis the new administration in Washington will be to convince the latter to insist on meaningful changes being inserted into the original nuclear agreement and to get them to understand that returning to the previous agreement would be a strategic mistake of the highest order. It is important to convince the new administration to use the leverage created by the Trump administration against Iran. But more than anything, the common strategic understandings that are based on shared values and interests must be clarified and reaffirmed in order to establish a strong foundation of trust between Israel and the incoming administration, trust that will allow us to make progress on the issues we agree on: Israeli security, stopping Iran from becoming a nuclear power and pushing forward with normalization and peace.

Deep freeze challenge: How and when Pfizer, Moderna's COVID-19 vaccines will arrive to Israel Ido Efrati | Nov. 17, 2020 |

After signing agreements with Moderna and Pfizer, the Health Ministry is preparing for the logistical challenges posed by the vaccinations. How many will arrive? Where will they be stored? What difficulties are likely to be encountered and what about the testing of the Israeli vaccine? Haaretz explains. Within a week, drug companies Moderna and Pfizer both announced impressive results of their testing of the vaccines they’d each developed against COVID-19, and the control center at the Health Ministry has already put together a team to prepare for their arrival. The team, headed by ministry deputy director-general Avi Ben Zaken, includes representatives of the HMOs, and delivery and logistics companies that specialize in transporting medical equipment, drugs and vaccines. Meanwhile, the pandemic response team has started to formulate recommendations for which groups should be vaccinated first. But even as Israel begins to take its first steps toward vaccinating the populace, there are a number open questions and possible difficulties en route. Is the efficacy of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines an established fact? Not yet, and certainly not officially. The announcements made by both companies were based on interim findings of the third stage of their clinical trials. In Moderna’s trial, whose third stage included some 30,000 people, 95 people contracted the virus – five who had been vaccinated and 90 who had received a placebo. Of the 95 instances of infection, 11 people developed serious symptoms, and they were all members of the placebo group. According to these findings, the two-dose vaccine was 94.5 percent effective. In Pfizer’s trial, which included 44,000 people, 94 people became infected, making the effectiveness of its vaccine 90 percent. Neither trial has been completed, however. Moreover, neither company has revealed the complete information about the trials; nor have the studies undergone peer review or been published in medical or scientific journals. The companies can only complete the regulatory and registration processes once the trials are complete, barring any surprises. The vaccines will be released only after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves them for use. Pfizer, Moderna and the American authorities all have a vested interest in pushing the approvals through as quickly as possible, so the bureaucratic procedures will likely be expedited. How does the vaccine work? The vaccine uses messenger RNA (mRNA) technology. While some vaccines spark an immune response using parts of the pathogen itself – in this case the coronavirus – these vaccines do so by using mRNA nucleic acids. The mRNA gives instructions to the body's cells to produce the proteins that wake up the immune system and create protective antibodies. The advantage of this method is that it is much easier and faster to synthesize mRNA than the proteins of the virus. 6 How many vaccines will Pfizer and Moderna send to Israel, and when? Pfizer is expected to manufacture 1.3 billion doses of the coronavirus vaccine next year. The details of the agreement with Israel were kept confidential, at the request of the company and for commercial reasons.

What has been publicly announced is that Israel will buy 8.5 million doses of the vaccine, which can inoculate 4.3 million Israelis (at two doses per person), for 800 million shekels (about $237 million). Unofficial sources have reported that the vaccines will be supplied in several stages, with the first small batches set to arrive in January, and more arriving over time. Moderna is expected to produce some 20 million doses by the end of this year to market in the United States, and in 2021 it will begin marketing between half a billion and a billion doses abroad. Health officials do not expect to see Moderna vaccines arriving in Israel before April. The agreement between Israel and Moderna was signed in June and its details were kept confidential. According to various reports, Israel paid the company 238 million shekels, but it isn’t clear for how many doses. Based on that amount, however, the estimate is that Moderna will supply Israel with two million doses, enough for a million Israelis. What logistical challenges are involved in getting the vaccine to Israel? Pfizer’s vaccine is stored in deep freeze, at temperatures between -70 to -80 degrees Celsius, and it must stay at that temperature throughout its journey to Israel. According to health professionals, the weak spot of the vaccine supply is the transfer between different stages of transport from the U.S. factory to the Israeli HMO clinics at the end of the road. If the vaccine is kept for too long above the required temperature it could lose its potency. According to sources familiar with the details of the deal, Pfizer’s vaccines would be flown to Israel, with the company responsible for the shipment until it reaches the airport in Israel, after which Israel assumes responsibility. Pfizer has yet to give Israel precise instructions on transporting and preserving the vaccines, how and how long to defrost them, and how long they can be used once they are defrosted. Unlike Pfizer, Moderna says its vaccine can be stored at temperatures of between 2 and 8 degrees for up to a month, and up to six months if frozen at -20 degrees. In other words, it is expected to have a smoother delivery to Israel. Is Israel prepared to transport the vaccines safely? Israel knows how to transport vaccines and medical preparations at low temperatures. For example, polio vaccines must be transported at temperatures of -20 degrees. However, transporting Pfizer’s vaccines at -80 degrees is somewhat different and will require appropriate freezers. Israel has such freezers, but more will probably be necessary for all the required transportation. Professionals familiar with the issue say the operation will not require large numbers of plans or trucks outfitted with special freezers. The vaccine bottles are relatively small – compared to flu vaccines, for example, which come preloaded in the syringe. The relatively small volume of the shipments will ease the process. Where will the vaccines be stored? Israel has yet to determine whether the vaccines will be stored by the Health Ministry or supplied directly to the HMO warehouses. The decision will depend on where the vaccines can be best protected, the amount of time needed to defrost them and how long they remain potent after defrosting. Who decides who gets inoculated and when? The pandemic response team is discussing its priorities for vaccination in various forums, but no official decision has been made. Generally, people in high-risk groups and medical personnel are inoculated first, but the considerations are more complicated. Beyond determining who recieves the first 4.3 million doses (out of more than nine million Israelis), Israel must also determine the order of vaccination within these groups: Who gets the vaccine immediately and who must wait several weeks or months? There are also questions regarding the safety of the vaccine for certain population groups. Is the vaccine safe and effective for people with underlying medical issues? And if so, for how long?

7 It must be noted that these vaccines were developed with unprecedented speed, compressing clinical trials that usually take years into only a few months.

Does the progress foreign companies have made on a vaccine make the Israeli effort to develop a vaccine superfluous? Professional sources say no, stressing the advantage and importance of producing a coronavirus vaccine locally, especially if booster shots will be required every year or every few years. Earlier this month, the Institute for Biological Research in Ness Ziona began clinical trials of its coronavirus vaccine, which are expected to last several months. The third stage will only begin in April, assuming the first two stages are successful, and it will include up to 30,000 volunteers. If that stage is successful, the vaccine can be approved. What other difficulties may the vaccination campaign face? Many people will be reluctant to be vaccinated due to concerns that the expedited approval may have compromised safety. In a study conducted in April by doctors at the Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya, the general public seemed more willing to be vaccinated than nurses, at a relative rate of 75 percent to 61 percent. Seventy-six percent of the people surveyed said they would be concerned about the vaccine’s safety. Will the government obligate people to be vaccinated? Sources in the health establishment say this won’t be necessary, certainly not in the coming year while the quantity of available vaccines will be limited. If public willingness to take the vaccine is lower than expected, the Health Ministry prefers to roll out an information campaign encouraging people to get vaccinated rather than trying to pass legislation that could face many obstacles.

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