Israel has entered into negotiations with additional pharmaceutical companies to procure vaccines for the coronavirus, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein announced on Sunday.
So far, Israel has signed deals for vaccines with drugmakers Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca.
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Israel has so far recorded 328,613 coronavirus cases, of which 8,508 remain active. There are 318 people in serious condition, 120 of whom are on ventilators. The current infection rate is 2.8%. So far, 2,757 people have died from the disease.
In an interview with Israel Radio, Edelstein denied reports he had sought to legislate mandatory vaccination for the virus. "That was wild defamation by someone in the media," he said. "To the best of my knowledge, there is no democratic state with such a law. That doesn't absolve me of the need to bring enough vaccines for all [of Israel's] citizens."
In a separate interview with Army Radio, the health minister said that the best-case scenario would see small deliveries of vaccines begin to arrive in Israel by the beginning of 2021. "If everything goes as planned, we could see mass vaccinations around mid-2021," he said.
Asked about the possibility the government would issue another lockdown, Edelstein said, "We can't just open everything up. We don't want to arrive at a third lockdown, but if we continue down this path, we will get there."
Another official to speak with Army Radio was Education Minister Yoav Gallant, who said, "I cannot fathom that in a democratic country, they would demand mandatory vaccinations."
As for the increase in infections, he said, "We should not accuse the children of spreading disease, they are a reflection of their environment, and not the other way around," he said.
Gallant called to fully reopen the Israeli school system. "We must put the education system back into action. Presenting the morbidity data as on the rise following the opening of schools is manipulation at explaining the second lockdown," he said.
Despite attempts to blame students for the increase in infection, it is unclear if children will be able to receive any of the coronavirus vaccinations purchased from Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca, as none of those companies included children under the age of 12 in their clinical trials.
"We've seen that no one has [tested anyone] under the age of five - these kids aren't even in the picture," Dr. Tzachi Grossman, who heads the Israel Pediatric Association, told Israel Hayom.
"Children are not a target for testing new vaccines, and I assume that will be expanded down the line. It could be that the reason for this is the regulatory behavior and the fact that ethical approvals required for children are more complicated. But there is also a reflection here of the morbidity rate in children, which is a situation where few children are seriously ill, and most of them get through the illness pretty easily. That's why this is a population that is less prioritized on the vaccine front."
The IPA has called on the Health Ministry to incorporate association members into the teams tasked with public relations for the new vaccines.
According to Grossman, "It looks like there will be hesitation and opposition to vaccination from a sizeable portion of the population. Twenty percent said in polling that they do not intend to get vaccinated, and there is a lot of bad information on social media and great concerns among parts of the population."
"No one authorizes vaccinating children based on adult data," he said.
Meanwhile, the Advisory Committee on Infectious Diseases and Immunization is set to convene to deliberate how to prioritize different high-risk groups for vaccination. A similar discussion that focused on high-risk groups, including people with pre-existing conditions, health workers, among others, was held by the Israeli Epidemic Management Team.
Dr. Tal Brosh, Epidemic Management Team secretary and director of the Samson Assuta Ashdod University Hospital, explained, "In developing medications and vaccines, the accepted [method] is to begin with adults and move on to children, who are considered a more sensitive population.
"We'll have to make a decision whether to wait with child vaccinations until there are results from research on children, or decide that in light of the data on adults, we can administer the vaccine to children We'll speak to experts and see how other authorities in the US and Europe proceed."
He noted, "It will be a challenge to convince the population," and expressed hope there would be incentives for vaccination.
"There is no chance of vaccinating a population without there being enough evidence that it isn't harmful. On the other hand, sometimes, in an epidemic, even if I haven't examined all the populations, one can treat a 15-year-old like an adult, and make a decision, but that's a theoretical debate."
There are currently eight cities designated as "red" and 22 as "orange," according to the government's traffic light system of determining public health restrictions for local authorities based on the number of new coronavirus cases and percentage of positive test results.
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According to a report from the military intelligence task force on the virus, Israel saw an increase in the number of new hospitalizations as well as in serious cases of the virus last week for the first time in a month and a half. The report also notes that of the 857 teachers who tested for the virus, 33 were found to be carrying the virus – an infection rate of 3.9%.
