UK health secretary says case rate is still far too high to consider easing restrictions; first Pfizer dose does not immediately prevent infection, says Israeli health minister
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Asked why Israel is not vaccinating Palestinians in the country and under occupation in the West Bank – despite the United Nations saying it is their legal obligation to ensure they have access, and pressure from senior rabbis to act – Edelstein says it is prioritising its own citizens.
As far as the vaccination is concerned, it’s the Israel obligation first and foremost to its citizens. They pay taxes for that don’t they, but having said that I do remember that it is our interest – not our legal obligation – to make sure Palestinians get the vaccine. That they won’t have Covid-19 spreading.
First of all, we could also look to the Oslo agreements where it says loud and clear that Palestinians have to take care of their own health. If it’s the responsibility of the Israeli health minister to take care of the Palestinians, what exactly is the responsibility of the Palestinian health minister – to take care of the dolphins in the Mediterranean?
After Israel’s health ministry this week rowed back on comments by the country’s coronavirus tsar, who suggested single doses of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine had not given as much protection against the disease as had been hoped, the country’s health minister has said there have been cases among those inoculated.
Yuli Edelstein told the BBC’s Andrew Marr show:
We’re just in the beginning of the campaign, we unfortunately do see cases that after getting the first dose, people do get sick, get the coronavirus. At the same time there are some encouraging signs of less severe diseases, less people hospitalised after the first dose. At this stage its very difficult to say, its not a clinical trial yet … We sincerely hope we will have better information soon.
We still have a very small number of those who we consider fully vaccinated, meaning a week after the second dose, according to Pfizer’s instructions … We decided to follow their instructions.
Related: Single Covid vaccine dose in Israel ‘less effective than we thought’
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