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1 Poll Shows Public Less Critical of Government's Response to COVID Poll shows public less critical of government’s response to COVID; Yamina slips By TOI STAFF Today The public view of the government’s handling of the pandemic is improving slightly, according to a poll published Tuesday. The Channel 12 poll, also showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party making small gains at the expense of its rival Yamina ahead of the March election. Asked what they thought of the government’s handling of the COVID-19 crisis, 50 percent of respondents had a negative view while 47% had a positive view. In a poll published by the channel a month ago, 59% said they had a negative view and 39% had a positive outlook. Asked specifically about the economic aspects of the pandemic, 67% had a negative view of the government’s conduct, while 29% had a positive one — an improvement over the previous poll, which found 72% of respondents had a negative view and 25% saw the government response favorably. Meanwhile, Naftali Bennett’s Yamina party, which repeatedly criticized the government on its response to the virus, appeared to be weakening, and is on the verge of dropping down to single digits in projected Knesset seats. No party leader has a clear path to a Knesset majority. According to Tuesday’s poll, the so-called anti-Netanyahu bloc — made up of parties whose leaders have said they will not sit in a government with the prime minister — has 61 seats; the Likud plus ultra-Orthodox parties bloc has 44 seats, with the presumed Netanyahu ally Religious Zionism adding 5 more; and Yamina, as an undecided factor, has 10. Bennett has declared himself a candidate for prime minister, but has not ruled out sitting in a coalition with Likud. 1 Speaking to Channel 12 Tuesday night, Yamina’s Bennett bashed Netanyahu’s handling of the economy, highlighting the fact that no 2020 budget was passed despite the prime minister apparently claiming so during an interview Monday. “The prime minister sat here yesterday in a festive mood as if he had liberated Jerusalem, when in fact 5,400 people died,” Bennett said, berating what he called Netanyahu’s “patting himself on the shoulder.” “I can not criticize his rhetorical ability, but a million people are unemployed,” Bennett said. “There is a state to manage and it is not being managed.” During the first outbreak of the virus in the spring, unemployment figures issued by the Employment Service spiked as 800,000 people quickly lost work in Israel’s initial lockdown. They have since fluctuated as the country has moved in and out of restrictions and closures. Asked about his party’s falling polling numbers, Bennett said, “After the election, we will see the state of the seats. I need a few more seats to bring about a change of leadership… with 15 seats, it is possible to come and change the leadership in a real way.” It works: 0 deaths, only 4 severe cases among 523,000 fully vaccinated Israelis By NATHAN JEFFAY 11 February 2021 TOI An Israeli healthcare provider that has vaccinated half a million people with both doses of the Pfizer vaccine says that only 544 people — or 0.1% — have been subsequently diagnosed with the coronavirus, there have been four severe cases, and no people have died. That means the effectiveness rate stands at 93 percent, Maccabi Healthcare Services announced on Thursday, after comparing its immunized members to a “diverse” control group of unvaccinated members. Full protection against COVID-19 for people who have been vaccinated is believed to kick in a week after the second shot, so the Maccabi data covers all those of its members who are seven or more days after receiving that second dose. Maccabi’s statistics are being closely monitored around the world, for giving the first major insight into how the vaccine performs outside of clinical trials. And they are being widely hailed for indicating that real-word effectiveness is close to the 95% efficacy cited after Pfizer’s clinical trials. “This data unequivocally proves that the vaccine is very effective and we have no doubt that it has saved the lives of many Israelis,” said senior Maccabi official Dr. Miri Mizrahi Reuveni after the new data release. She stressed that among those who have vaccinated and become infected, the vast majority have experienced the coronavirus lightly. Out of the 523,000 fully vaccinated people, 544 were infected with COVID-19, of whom 15 needed hospitalization: Eight are in mild condition, three in moderate condition, and four in severe condition. Proposed bill: Public-facing staff must vaccinate or be tested to go to work By TOI STAFF Today, 10:27 Health Minister Yuli Edelstein will reportedly promote legislation aimed at reducing the number of unvaccinated people in public-facing workplaces by only allowing in workers who have vaccinated, recovered from the coronavirus, or recently tested negative. According to a report Wednesday by the Ynet news site, the legislation will be promoted in the coming days and is aimed at initially focusing on teaching staff who refuse to get inoculated as children head back to the classroom. Channel 12 reported Tuesday that, with between 10 percent and 30% of healthcare workers still unvaccinated, Israel is planning on making the inoculation mandatory for them, as are other vaccines. 2 Although the idea of legislation to compel or encourage people to get vaccinated has been floated in the past, it has previously been dismissed for not having political support or legal standing. However, Wednesday’s report said officials believe it is necessary in order to encourage Israelis who do not intend to get inoculated to reverse their position. The law will include “restriction on entering the business by an employee who is not recovered [from the virus] or vaccinated, or who did not present a negative result at the workplace, at the place and time to be determined by regulations,” the report said. The report said that the legislation would initially be targeted at teaching staff, medical workers and police officers, but that the legislation will include the phrase that the regulations “shall be determined with due regard to the scope of the people who come into contact with the employee, their characteristics, the nature of the business and the occupation, as well as taking into account those who have a medical justification for not being vaccinated.” The report did not give details on what sanctions those who refuse to get vaccinated or tested could face, nor on who would pay for the testing and how often it would be required. In the past Edelstein has said teachers would need to pay for their own tests if they did not get inoculated. The proposal to compel some workers to vaccinate is expected to face widespread opposition from unions and civil rights organizations. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel said the proposal was “illegal and infringes on the privacy and choices of the employee.” Edelstein announced on Wednesday that over 50 percent of Israelis age 30-plus have been vaccinated. The minister said that around 4,075,000 people have now received the first dose of the vaccine, with about 2,700,000 also having received the second shot. That amounts to around 44% of the country’s total population having now received the first dose of the coronavirus vaccine. Around 3 million Israelis are not eligible to be vaccinated, including those younger than 16 and people who have recovered from COVID-19, among other reasons. Vaccine hesitancy and skepticism have become a growing concern in recent weeks as Israel’s world-leading inoculation campaign has slowed. The Health Ministry is also pushing to amend public health ordinances to allow it to hand over personal data on who has or hasn’t been vaccinated to local authorities and the Education Ministry, in a bid to boost the vaccine campaign, Hebrew media reports said. Alongside the proposed legal measures, there have been a number of other initiatives to encourage people to get vaccinated, including free food, inoculations performed on forest trails and businesses offering incentives for employees to go and get the shot. On Tuesday, the Magen David Adom emergency service sent mobile vaccination units to inoculate students studying in yeshivas around the country. A number of yeshivas, where men study at close quarters, some in violation of the regulations, have seen major outbreaks throughout the course of the pandemic. “If Mohammed won’t come to the mountain, the mountain will come to Mohammed,” Jerusalem Mayor Moshe Lion said of the initiative in an interview with Channel 12. A senior paramedic told the outlet that the unit could inoculate up to 200 people an hour. To boost the vaccination rates, the Haredi Lemaanchem medical organization was even going into yeshivas that had seen some of the worst violations and mass gatherings, and setting up vaccination initiatives. “We want to turn the ultra-Orthodox areas into [low-infection] areas,” said Rabbi Yossi Erlich, the head of the organization. Additionally, the vaccination programs received the backing of leading ultra-Orthodox Rabbi Chaim Kanievsky, who has previously faced intense criticism for his handling of the pandemic and for rulings given to his followers. He has instructed schools to open in defiance of government decisions on several occasions, leading hundreds of institutions to illicitly open their doors throughout the pandemic. 3 Yair Lapid's election challenge: Threatening Netanyahu's Likud without getting too strong Jonathan Lis | Feb. 16, 2021 | Haaretz Yesh Atid is shaping up to be the second-largest party in the Knesset after the March 23 general election.
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