Israel is now preparing its citizens to take a fourth dose of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine. The Middle Eastern nation first talked about preparing people for the fourth vaccine dose back in September, when National Coronavirus Czar Dr. Salman Zarka said that taking more booster shots is necessary.
“Given that the virus is here and will continue to be here, we also need to prepare for a fourth injection,” said Zarka. “This is our life from now on, in waves.”
Ministry of Health Director-General Nachman Ash backed up Zarka’s earlier statement in a recent interview. “We don’t know when it will happen,” said Ash. “I hope very much that it won’t be within six months like this time, and that the third dose will last for longer.”‘
During a press briefing, Ash refused to give a specific timetable for the rollout of the fourth dose.
“It’s probably a matter of time,” he said. “If [protection] lasts for a year, we’d be delighted… In any case, it probably will not last many years, even the booster shot, and we will have to keep getting vaccinated from time to time. I hope it will be a year or more.”
In line with Ash’s announcements, the government is making preparations to ensure that the country has a sufficient supply of COVID-19 vaccines so that all those who are eligible for a fourth dose will have access to it when it becomes needed.
Israeli officials said in a press conference that boosters are actually more effective at preventing COVID-19 than the first two doses. The country’s COVID-19 pandemic advisory panel even recommended administering vaccine boosters to teenagers.
The panel claimed this decision was based on studies that showed giving boosters extends the vaccine’s effectiveness.
Israeli children likely getting infected by vaccinated adults
As preparations are made to begin administering the fourth COVID-19 vaccine dose, the country’s mass vaccination program for booster shots continues.
As of Monday, November 22, around 2.8 million of the seven million eligible Israelis have already received booster shots.
Israel also recently expanded its rollout of COVID-19 vaccines to allow children between the ages of five to 11 to take them.
Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said the country is experiencing a “children’s wave” of COVID-19 infections. Around half of the country’s recently confirmed cases are among children aged 11 or below.
Israel has around 1.2 million children between the ages of five to 11. Israeli scientists claimed that by November, around a third of new COVID-19 cases were coming from this age group. Bennett and the scientists failed to point out that these children most likely got infected through their fully vaccinated parents or other relatives.
Before the rollout for younger children began on Monday, Israel had already started providing the experimental and dangerous COVID-19 vaccines to older children between the ages of 12 and 17. Israeli health authorities were convinced to lower the age threshold after trials from Pfizer that supposedly showed the vaccine to be effective and safe for children.
The country is so willing to risk the health of its children that the prime minister’s own youngest son is scheduled to be vaccinated on Tuesday morning, November 23.
The tactics Israel is using to convince its citizens that children should be vaccinated are working. A poll by Israeli healthcare provider Maccabi found that 41 percent of parents to children ages five to 11 were positive they will vaccinate their kids. Thirty-eight percent said they will not vaccinate their children and 21 percent of respondents were still undecided.
If Israel continues to pull out all the stops to trick its citizens into believing more and more vaccines are necessary, there is no telling when the vaccinations will end.
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