Late one night last week, while she was still in her office at the Infectious disease institute at Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, the door of Professor Galia Rahav's office clicked open. A security guard walked in, looked around, and asked if she was all right. The doctor, who this past year had become the public face of COVID, looked at him, tiredly, and smiled.
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"If you're smiling, I'll try to stay calm," he told her. "We'll come by in an hour to make sure everything's OK."
For the past four months, Rahav has been the target of uncontrolled incitement on social media. Anti-vaxxers haven't let her alone since she suggested in February that Israel vaccinate children ages 12-15 for COVID. Although the vaccine isn't mandatory, opponents have wished her dead, called her "Mengele," and promised to carry out the Kabbalistic "Pulsa DiNura" ceremony – in which participants call on the angel of death to take the subject of their wrath – against her. A group that calls itself "The Citizens Committee to Investigate COVID" even reached out to the attorney general to ask that he open a criminal investigation against Rahav and the Health Ministry, claiming that Rahav had misled the public about the Pfizer vaccine when she said it was safe.
In an interview to Israel Hayom, Rahav said that until last week, she had taken no action against the campaign of incitement.
"When the anti-vaxxers published pictures of an angry redheaded clown and hinted it was me, I laughed. When they posted a picture of Chucky, the murdering doll, and said it was me, I ignored it. When they compared me to Hitler, it hurt me, quietly. I'm the daughter of Holocaust survivors.
"Even when they opened Facebook pages against me and called me a 'murderer of children,' 'Satan,' and a 'psychopath,' I didn't respond. Even though they published my address and called for demonstrations outside my home, I refused the hospital's offer of a security detail.
"In the last few days, the incitement has shifted gears. I saw messages that said I should be burned, that I should be hanged, that I should be buried next to Hitler … I also see how they are convincing people not to be vaccinated, and thereby putting lives in danger. There are some that spread fake news and write that schools are vaccinating children for COVID without notifying anyone. That's a complete lie.
"A week ago I decided, enough. I filed a police complaint about threats and incitement. At the same time, I, with the Israeli Medical Association, intend to file a civil suit against the people inciting against me. We need to stop slandering and curing doctors for doing their work. Maybe if these anti-vaxxers have to pay compensation, they'll think twice before calling me a murderer or claiming that I'm taking bribes from Pfizer," Rahav says.
On the day that Israel's HMOs announced that some 13,000 children and youth had signed up to be vaccinated for COVID, Rahav, 66, was in the Jerusalem Theater at a Health Ministry ceremony honoring doctors. When she returned to her home in Beit Hakerem, she sat down at the dining room table and starting looking over the new Health Ministry numbers about people vaccinate for COVID who contracted heart muscle inflammation, the main reason for concern about vaccinating children.
"In Israel, there were 148 cases, or one out of every 6,000 people vaccinated," Rahav says, leafing through a stack of papers.
"The vast majority were mild cases, other than eight. They were most common among people ages 20-29, 44 men and seven women in that age group. There were 33 cases in people ages 16-19, 32 men and one girl. One young woman, age 22, died of the disease. After age 30, the numbers are very low," she says. "I agree that this is a phenomenon that cannot be ignored, and I think that it is linked somehow to the vaccine."
Q: Do you see the number of children signed up to be vaccinated as low?
"I expected a much lower response."
Q: if you had a 12-year-old kid, would you have him vaccinated?
"There is no COVID in Israel right now, so my answer is negative. I suggest waiting a bit. Vaccinate them if you want to travel abroad, if they're obese, if they're in a high-risk group or if there is someone immunosuppressed in the home. We could easily wait a month or two, because the US is currently vaccinating hundreds of thousands of children these ages, and we should wait to see what happens there."
Q: The protest against you stems from the assumption that you recommend vaccinating children, and how you're saying the opposite.
"The meeting of the Vaccination Committee about vaccinating children took place in February, and even though we were already far along with vaccinating adults, the numbers still hadn't dropped, and there were still over 9,000 new cases per day. Anyone who knows the world of infectious disease knows that for the most part, you can't overcome an epidemic without vaccinating children. I suggested at the meeting that we talk to Pfizer and do a case study on children in Israel, and not depend only on US research.
"The meeting protocol was published on the Health Ministry website, and then someone wrote, 'Galia Rahav wants to experiment on children.' Now go explain that I always text new medicines, because my goal is first and foremost to save my patients. It was a short path from there to me being compared to Mengele."
Q: Were you wrong to say what you did in that meeting?
"No, and I won't take back what I said. It was right at the time. My recommendation changes as the reality on the ground does. I'm not afraid to say that I was certain that if we didn't vaccinate the children, we wouldn't overcome the virus, but we succeeded without it. It seems as if they are infecting others less.
"The virus numbers today are completely different to what they were then, so now there's really no reason to run after the vaccine in a panic. We don't know everything about the virus, but it appears that a kind of herd immunity has been created in Israel. On the other hand, we've learned that it's unpredictable. If all sorts of dangerous variants enter Israel tomorrow, I'll recommend vaccinating children."
The unrestrained attack on the veteran doctor, considered Israel's leading expert on infectious disease and epidemics, is difficult to comprehend. It started four months ago, with her being compared to Cruella de Ville, and only grew worse.
Social media users wrote things like "She is Hitler's future neighbor in Hell" and "Galia, we're praying for the day God takes you, may it be soon."
Q: Were you surprised by the hate?
"I only saw what people showed me, because I'm very busy and I don't spend the day on social media. I preferred to focus on the people who defended me against the attackers. My daughter, Roni, was frightened. In March, she and my partner filed a complaint with the police. I didn't have the energy or the time to handle it."
Rahav was sure that the attacks would diminish with time, but the opposite happened. The closer the country came to the date when children would start being vaccinated, the more they increased. The week before last, the social media outrage became acts.
"Last Tuesday I organized a conference in Ramat Gan about COVID vaccinations for children and in general, as part of my role as chair of the Israeli Society for Infectious Diseases (ISID). About 150 doctors who are experts in infectious disease came, and about 150 more doctors from other fields were watching on Zoom, like general practitioners and pediatricians.
"In the middle of the conference, anti-vaxxers burst into the room. I have no idea how they knew we were there. They shouted and waved signs saying that Pfizer was funding us, and if we were willing to have our children be guinea pigs. They weren't violent, but the conference was stopped until the security guards got them out.
"My daughter was anxious because they stormed the conference and were right next to me, even though none of them tried to physically harm me. That was the moment I realized I need to file a complaint with the police, because the incitement and protests wouldn't stop on their own."
Q: Are the latest threats keeping you awake?
"I barely sleep anyway, because of work," Rahav laughs. "But it makes me angry because these people are putting the public in danger. Unlike them, I save people."
Q: Why did you refuse security?
"I don't want to be followed. No one has stopped me while I'm driving or thrown rocks at my house. It's enough that the security guards check in on me every hour."
Q: Why do they accuse you of taking bribes from Pfizer?
"Oh, come on. I've never taken a penny from Pfizer. The whole story about Pfizer has to do with a study I did years ago about fungal infections in bone marrow recipients. The drugs they were given caused serious side effects, so we tried a new drug that saved their lives. Pfizer funded that expensive study, and then bought the drug from the developer.
"Throughout the COVID pandemic, I took part in conferences and countless meetings, all on a volunteer basis. I neglected my private infectious disease clinic in the Malha Mall, where I take care of AIDS patients, organ transplant recipients, people who suffer from fibromyalgia and pregnant women who contract viruses that attack fetuses."
Q: It looks as if the anti-vaxxers have beaten the Health Ministry. All the restrictions put on them at the start have been lifted.
"They won?!?" Rahav thunders. "We won! The pandemic restrictions weren't lifted because of them [the anti-vaxxers], but thanks to the people who got vaccinated. The anti-vaxxers are parasites. They endanger themselves and their families. There were plenty of COVID patients who infected their parents, who then died. These are people who will carry the guilt of that for the rest of their lives."
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Rahav did her IDF service as a teacher, and in 1974 registered for medical school at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where she was considered an outstanding student. She did a residency in internal medicine at Hadassah Ein Karem and Hadassah Mount Scopus hospitals. She then completed an additional residency in clinical microbiology, and began working on research. Along the way, she married her childhood sweetheart, and they had two children – Roni, 35, an OB-GYN resident at Meir Hospital in Kfar Saba, and Nir, a medical student at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
Until 2003, Rahav worked as a doctor in the Infectious Disease Department at Hadassah, until she moved to Sheba when then-director of the medical center, Professor Zeev Rotstein, offered her the directorship of the Infectious Diseases Research Laboratory.
"He tempted me by promising to set me up with a research lab," Rahav smiles. "Today, I have an HIV lab and clinics to prevent infectious disease and for travelers' health. I've done over 250 clinical studies here, and recently we found a way to fight aggressive bacteria in hospitals. When we finish, we'll send the formula to drug companies so they can produce antibiotics."
Rahav is in the process of opening a new lab. "Here, we'll work on all sorts of dangerous pathogens, like the COVID virus," she says, turning proudly to the futuristic sterile space. "You can't work on viruses like these in a regular lab, because you need special air conditioning and filters."
Rahav also serves as chair of the ISID, and teaches at Tel Aviv University's medical school. In February 2020, when Israelis who had been on the Diamond Princess "COVID cruise" returned, she was a member of the team that set up the first COVID unit in Israel, at Sheba. She was appointed to write the protocol for treating COVID patients, deciding on ways to prevent infection, and choosing the protective gear for hospital workers.
While working at a feverish pace, she also became a regular guest in the media, where she adopted a cautious approach, backing a lockdown when the numbers began to rise. On Independence Day 2020 she was selected to light a torch at the annual ceremony on Mount Herzl.
Q: How did you become known as someone who sows fear among the public?
"I've thought about that a lot. At first, I thought it was because I'm a woman. Look, both Professor Gabi Barabash and Professor Ran Balicer were considered conservative [in their approach to COVID]. After that, I realized that it was coming from somewhere else that had to do with a mistake I made when I agreed to appear on TV with Professor Yoram Lass.
"The segment was filmed in the hospital, after a difficult day. A few hours earlier, I'd been sitting with a young man who had COVID, who had infected his father, who died. People were begging me, in tears, to save their relatives. I saw the death and the helplessness, and I was very emotional.
"And then they brought in Professor Lass, who was smug and hadn't treated any COVID patients, and he said that it was 'just a flu.' I felt stupid. I was angry at myself for agreeing to meet. I talked about the dangers, about the fact that there was no effective treatment, that people were dying, and he acted as if it was all nothing. Maybe it was a show on his part. Most doctors who appeared in the TV studios hadn't treated COVID patients."
Q: Do you believe that COVID is behind us?
"In Israel, it looks that way, but in countries like England, Taiwan, and Nepal, there is a spike with the Indian variant. We should keep our finger on the pulse of things."
Q: Do you support the decision to make masks non-mandatory in closed spaces?
"I supported removing the mask mandate outside, but with closed spaces, we've been a little hasty. The Health Ministry asked my opinion, and I told them that I would keep the [indoor mask mandate] in place a little longer, even though plenty of people are already taking them off."
Rahav says that personally, she always wears a mask in crowded places, and will continue to do so in the near future, pointing out that thanks to masks, "We've reduced flu and other respiratory diseases."
Q: Will we need to be revaccinated when winter comes?
"As long as there is no change in the number of cases, I don't think we'll need to. We still don't know how long the existing vaccine is effective. In serological tests at Sheba we've discovered something amazing. The antibodies drop, but they turn out to be much more effective. As if they learn from the disease.
"I think that we'll have to revaccinate only people who have some kind of immune problem. Right now I'm finishing a large study in which we did serological testing of patients who received heart, kidney, liver, and bone marrow transplants, as well as leukemia, myeloma, and AIDS patients. The results were amazing. For example, only 18% of heart transplant patients developed antibodies – the drugs they take to suppress organ rejection suppress the development of antibodies. On the other hand, AIDS patients responded to the vaccine the same way the rest of the population did. I think that only the immunosuppressed will get a third dose."
Q: If a third dose is needed this winter, does Israel have enough?
"There are enough vaccines, but I haven't looked into whether the amount will suffice to vaccine the entire country a third time."
Q: As someone who is part of the Israel Institute of Biological Research's project to develop another vaccine, do you think it should still be funded, giving the success of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines?
"I heard the criticism about continuing the project, and it's justified, to a certain point. The institute is just at the third stage of the trial, and it's hard to find volunteers because a lot of them left the study to get the Pfizer vaccine. On the other hand, the institute has done good work in developing a vaccine with no side effects. I assume that eventually, it will recoup the investment when the vaccines are sold in countries where the citizens haven't been vaccinated yet."
Next year, Rahav will be eligible to retire. "It's hard for me to even think about," she says. "I feel like I'm 40, and I still have so much to contribute. I'll leave the institute, but I'll stay on at Sheba as a travelers' doctor and will continue to run my private clinic.
"I'll probably fulfill a few dreams, like opening a clinic in the periphery that will bring people together through medicine. I'm also thinking of publishing a book I've been writing for the last few years about being the second generation of Holocaust survivor parents. I'll need some time off before I do that," she says.
