Bennett, health officials said to tussle over further COVID restrictions

Report says PM questioned expert panel’s call for tighter caps on gatherings already subject to Green Pass rules

By TOI STAFF     Today, 2:29 pm

People, some wearing face masks, shop at the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem, on September 20, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
People, some wearing face masks, shop at the Mahane Yehuda market in Jerusalem, on September 20, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Government and health officials appeared to feud Friday over imposing additional coronavirus restrictions, with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett reportedly deciding against further limitations on gatherings.

According to the Walla news site, Bennett’s decision was opposed by Health Ministry officials, who are pushing for tighter curbs on gatherings.

At a meeting Thursday, Bennett cast doubt on a forecast predicting morbidity could keep rising and questioned why gatherings that already require a Green Pass should be further restricted, Army Radio reported, citing unnamed participants in the meeting.

Under Green Pass rules, entry to businesses and events is limited to those with proof of vaccination, recovery from COVID-19 or a negative test result.

<
>
<
>
It was not clear from the report who presented the forecast. A panel of experts advising the government called for tighter restrictions on gatherings during the meeting, while Hebrew University researchers displayed models predicting new daily infections and serious cases would soon begin dropping.

Meanwhile, an unnamed government official took a jab at Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, the Health Ministry’s public health chief, who has lobbied for more restrictive measures to battle the pandemic.

“Sharon Alroy-Preis’s conduct crosses all lines,” the official was quoted as saying by Channel 12 news.

The official also accused Alroy-Preis of spreading “fear and panic” in media interviews.

“What happened to her is what happened to others in the Health Ministry. She became addicted to prophecies of rage and a lack of control over the data,” the official said. “There’s an agenda here. She, Alroy-Preis, isn’t professional.”

However, unnamed ministers defended Alroy-Preis in comments to Channel 13 news, calling her a professional.

The ministers also said the Health Ministry raised the matter of further limiting gatherings but did not press for voting on more restrictions.

During Thursday’s meeting, a government advisory panel reportedly urged ministers to reconsider their approach to the pandemic, calling for a policy putting greater emphasis on reducing serious morbidity and urging more limitations on gatherings.

But Hebrew University researchers also presented a study predicting the number of new cases will decline over the next 10 days, followed by a drop in serious cases as updated Green Pass rules mandating booster shots take effect next month.

The researchers also questioned the benefit of limiting events where entry is already restricted to those with a Green Pass.

Israel’s fourth wave of infections has seen record numbers of daily cases, but hospitalizations have remained lower than in past outbreaks, which experts attribute to the country’s high vaccination rates.

September 24, 2021 | 3 Comments »

Leave a Reply

3 Comments / 3 Comments

  1. Should we take a poll on who wants to have an expired experimental vaccine that expired in July but had its expiration date extended to October in a statement that was printed at the end of September? Is this suppose to help eliminate vaccine hesitency?

    Israel, Pfizer said to extend expiration date of some 60,000 vaccine doses
    Meanwhile, country to widely administer synthetic antibody treatment to COVID-19 patients, prioritizing the unvaccinated
    By TOI staff 23 September 2021, 4:45 am

    Pfizer has reportedly agreed to extend the expiration date of some 60,000 doses of its coronavirus vaccines that were kept in ultra-cold conditions by Israel.

    According to a report Wednesday evening on Channel 13 news, the vaccines’ end-of-July expiration date was extended to the end of October following discussions in recent weeks between Health Ministry officials and Pfizer executives.

    The US Food and Drug Administration, after giving the Pfizer vaccine final approval on August 23, said that some doses could be used up to three months after their expiration dates, provided they were stored in the right conditions.

    “Cartons and vials of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine with an expiry date of May 2021 through February 2022 printed on the label may remain in use for 3 months beyond the printed date as long as approved storage conditions between -90ºC to -60ºC (-130ºF to -76ºF) have been maintained,” the FDA said in a fact sheet about the vaccine.

    From TOI

  2. Should we take a poll on who wants to have an expired experimental vaccine that expired in July but had its expiration date extended to October in a statement that was printed at the end of September? Is this suppose to help eliminate vaccine hesitency?

    Israel, Pfizer said to extend expiration date of some 60,000 vaccine doses
    Meanwhile, country to widely administer synthetic antibody treatment to COVID-19 patients, prioritizing the unvaccinated
    By TOI staff 23 September 2021, 4:45 am

    Pfizer has reportedly agreed to extend the expiration date of some 60,000 doses of its coronavirus vaccines that were kept in ultra-cold conditions by Israel.

    According to a report Wednesday evening on Channel 13 news, the vaccines’ end-of-July expiration date was extended to the end of October following discussions in recent weeks between Health Ministry officials and Pfizer executives.

    The US Food and Drug Administration, after giving the Pfizer vaccine final approval on August 23, said that some doses could be used up to three months after their expiration dates, provided they were stored in the right conditions.

    “Cartons and vials of Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 Vaccine with an expiry date of May 2021 through February 2022 printed on the label may remain in use for 3 months beyond the printed date as long as approved storage conditions between -90ºC to -60ºC (-130ºF to -76ºF) have been maintained,” the FDA said in a fact sheet about the vaccine.

    From TOI

  3. Zero Covid was a pipe dream developed to sell the vaccines, it seems, as the vaccines across the globe are failing after only a few months. Outbreaks among the vaccinated is now routine and it seem we will never finally reach this point of Zero Covid as it has not been achieved any where in the world. Anywhere, except India, that is. India, where a third rated vaccine was used and only 16% of the public are fully inoculated, but where early and prophylactic treatments were employed last Spring to crush their Covid curve and snuff it out entirely. So why are we pursuing further vaccinations towards a goal that seems to be escaping our grasp even while the second most populous nation in the world seems to have achieved without vaccines, or without much vaccines, that which every vaccinated nation in the world has claimed was the very purpose of these very expensive and somewhat failing vaccines. And, recall that India was in a case spiral in May. After 30 days the number of cases were crushed with early treatments and after 4months more, Covid is vanished from the nation, outside of two states who pursued the model of Israel, the US and the UK and succeeded in achieving very similar results. These two states in India have learned their lesson and are adopting the early treatment protocol to finally obtain the Zero Covid status of their countrymen. Why is the rest of the world not doing the same?