Thread by @bopinion

Israel should be celebrating:

💉20% of its population has been fully vaccinated
💉Another 15% have been given the first of two jabs
💉5 million citizens — well over half the adult population — should be vaccinated by mid-March
trib.al/URlq8k1

It seems to be working. One of Israel’s HMOs announced that, of 163,000 fully-vaccinated patients, 92% were Covid-free after 10 days. 8% had mild symptoms.

Members of a control group of unvaccinated Israelis were found to be 11 times more highly infected trib.al/URlq8k1

Yet, Israel is still struggling to contain the virus.

This isn’t because the vaccine is failing, but because many Israelis still refuse to follow restrictions imposed to limit the spread of infections trib.al/URlq8k1

The elderly and those with underlying conditions were vaccinated first. Areas with high vaccination rates experienced:

50% drop in cases
40% drop in hospitalizations
15% fewer serious patients

Low reproduction rates mean infections should keep declining trib.al/URlq8k1

Even so, Covid-19 claimed 1,400 lives in Jan., about a third of total deaths since the start of the pandemic.

Most of these were elderly patients for whom the vaccine didn’t arrive in time. If Israel is bending the curve, it isn’t doing it fast enough trib.al/URlq8k1

Why so many new infections?

One big factor is Haredim and Arab Israelis who often flout the social-distancing guidelines and become infected at mass communal events such as weddings and funerals trib.al/URlq8k1

Coronavirus wards in Israel’s hospitals have also been filling up with unvaccinated younger patients.

Full herd immunity may not be achieved until a vaccine can also be given to children trib.al/URlq8k1

For the past three weeks Israel has, in theory, been under an internal lockdown. In any case, compliance is poor.

Even proponents of the lockdown concede that it isn’t doing much to slow the spread of the virus trib.al/URlq8k1

But it has played a part in poisoning the atmosphere.

This is primarily the fault of a refusal by much of the ultra-Orthodox Haredi community to accept government restrictions unless they’re approved by senior rabbis trib.al/URlq8k1

Recently Netanyahu was reduced to calling Chaim Kanievsky, a 93-year-old Haredi rabbi with influence over many ultra-Orthodox schools, to ask for his compliance with the nationwide school shutdown.

After a brief pause, the classrooms are still open trib.al/URlq8k1

On Sunday morning another nonagenarian rabbi was buried in Jerusalem.

Despite rules against large gatherings, over 10,000 Haredi men and boys accompanied the casket through the capital. For ordinary citizens watching on TV, it was a chilling spectacle trib.al/URlq8k1

New British and South African variants are also partly to blame. To protect against new mutations found abroad, Israel has:

🚫Closed the airport to all but emergency travelers and cargo
🚫Blocked land entry from Egypt and Jordan trib.al/URlq8k1

But it’s the challenge within Israel that’s the bigger problem now.

Being a vaccination leader is great. But a country that can’t enforce its own most basic public health measures will take longer to defeat the virus trib.al/URlq8k1