What has transformed Israel from an international vaccine success story into a target of derision?
As one digital wag put it when the news broke about Pfizer’s threat to halt vaccine shipments to Israel, this is the “most Jewish thing ever.”
Pfizer was less charitable; executives reportedly labeled Israel a “banana republic.” The company decided to freeze a shipment of 700,000 vaccine doses slated to arrive soon in Israel. The stated reason was that Israel still had not paid for the vaccines, or for another 1.4 million doses. The company sent a message that if the money wasn’t transferred this week, the vaccines would be sent to another country and Israel would be removed from the waiting list. As a Pfizer representative bluntly put it to officials in Israel’s Health Ministry, “We’re not philanthropists.”
So what exactly has gone on, to transform Israel from an international vaccine success story into a target of derision?
The answer, as with most things that go wrong in the country nowadays, is politics. Israel has already vaccinated five million citizens with two doses of the Pfizer vaccine, but is planning to vaccinate children, and also wants to stock up on the vaccine for the future. With this in mind, the government wants to purchase an additional 30 million vaccines.
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