TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) – Israel, Denmark and Austria agreed on Thursday to join forces in the fight against COVID-19 with an investment in research and rollout of vaccines to protect people from new spikes and mutations of the coronavirus.
The leaders of the three countries said their alliance will set up a foundation and vaccine distribution plants in Europe and Israel, based on Israel’s leading inoculation drive.
The effort is aimed at anticipating the next expected rise in COVID-19 and the uncertainty about how long the vaccinations will remain effective. Details, such as cost and timetable for opening the projects, were still being worked out, leaders said.
“We believe that by pooling the resources of three small but highly capable and gifted countries, we can better address these challenges,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. He added that other countries have also expressed interest in the effort.
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz added that “this pandemic can only be overcome through global cooperation.”
That was a delicate matter as virus control campaigns in places like Europe faced challenges and raised concerns that the pandemic would last longer in poorer countries that cannot afford vaccination campaigns.
Israel vaccinated more than half of its population in one of the world’s most successful vaccination campaigns, although it has received some criticism for not sending significant amounts of vaccines to the Palestinians.
That is expected to change next week as Israel supplies vaccines to about 100,000 Palestinian workers working in Israel or the West Bank settlements. Yet the vast majority of the estimated 5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip will remain unvaccinated.
For Netanyahu, the alliance served as a way to bend his political strength on the international stage ahead of the March 23 elections. “Vaccination nation,” as he calls Israel, would become “vaccination countries,” including Denmark and Austria, he said, adding that the group would welcome more international partners.
While Israel does not produce vaccines, the prime minister has acted aggressively to secure enough vaccines for Israel’s 9.3 million people in deals with Pfizer and Moderna. Netanyahu has even offered some surplus vaccines to allied nations
European leaders said they wanted to learn from Israel’s success. Austria is one of the members of the European Union who has expressed frustration at the slow roll-out of the vaccine in the 27-country bloc. Kurz said he welcomed some of the way the EU has handled the crisis, “but we also need to work together globally.”
Earlier in the day, Kurz and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen joined Netanyahu at a gym in Israel to observe how vaccine certifications, known as the “green pass” or passport, work. Only people with a vaccination badge, obtained through an app, can use gymnasiums and attend concerts.
“Vaccine manufacturing involves many steps, so we’ll divide the task among us, and each one is focusing on specific ones,” said Kurz, who said his country will need about 30 million doses for the next expected phase of the pandemic. . Austria has vaccinated just over 6% of its population.
Frederiksen said she would also like to see the countries participate in clinical trials. Denmark has vaccinated just over 7% of its population since March 1.
“We all have promising research that could pave the way for next-generation platforms,” she said.
The Associated Press writers Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen, Denmark, and Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.
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