JERUSALEM (AP) – After a rapid leap forward in the race to vaccinate its population against the coronavirus, Israel has struck a deal with Pfizer and pledges to share massive amounts of medical data with the international drug giant in exchange for the continued flow of its hard work. receive vaccine.
Proponents say the deal could allow Israel to become the first country to vaccinate most of its population, while providing valuable research that could help the rest of the world. But critics say the deal raises major ethical concerns, including possible violations of privacy and a deepening of the global divide that allows rich countries to stockpile vaccines as poorer populations, including Palestinians in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza , have to wait longer. vaccinated.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu – who is ahead of the March elections as Israel’s vaccinator-in-chief – said earlier this month that he reached a deal with Pfizer’s CEO to speed up vaccine delivery to Israel.
“Israel will be a global model state,” he said. “Israel will share with Pfizer and around the world the statistical data that will help develop strategies to beat the coronavirus.”
Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein told The Associated Press that the government will hand over data to “ see how it affects the level of the disease in Israel, first of all, the ability to open the economy, various aspects of social life, and or there are any effects of the vaccination. “
The Pfizer vaccine, developed in conjunction with German partner BioNTech, has received emergency approval from the US Food and Drug Administration and the European Union regulatory agency and is believed to provide up to 95% protection against COVID-19. But much remains unknown, including its long-term protection and whether it can prevent the transmission of the virus.
Israel, home to approximately 9.3 million people, is considered an ideal place to study these questions. Mandatory universal healthcare is provided by four publicly funded HMOs with carefully digitized medical records. This centralized system has helped Israel deliver more than 2 million doses of the vaccine in less than a month. Israel has also purchased doses of the Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines.
The vaccination blitz is a matter of national pride. It is also central to Netanyahu’s reelection campaign as he tries to divert attention from his ongoing corruption process, Israel’s deep economic crisis and latest virus surge.
The Ministry of Health has registered more than 551,000 cases and more than 4,000 deaths since the start of the pandemic. Israeli officials say they aim to have most of the country vaccinated by the end of March, just around election day.
But the exact quid pro quo between Israel and Pfizer is unclear, even after an edited version of the agreement was released on Sunday by the Israeli Ministry of Health.
Neither Israel nor Pfizer would say how much Israel paid for the vaccines, although Edelstein called it a “classic win-win” for both parties. Israeli media has reported that Israel has paid at least 50% more than other countries. The data is reportedly shared with the World Health Organization, but the global agency did not respond to repeated requests for comment.
Earlier this month, the head of the WHO appealed to drug manufacturers and wealthier countries to “stop negotiating bilateral deals”, saying they hurt a UN-backed attempt to widen access. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has not selected countries or companies.
Last week, Dr. Siddhartha Datta, WHO Europe’s program manager for vaccine-preventable diseases and immunization, said the agency is seeking to collect and report ‘disaggregated’ data – based on age, gender, local area, employment and other factors – about safety issues when the vaccines are used.
Israel had already announced the acquisition of millions of vaccine doses before the Pfizer deal was announced. It is unclear how the amount or pace of deliveries has changed, or whether the vaccines have been diverted from other countries.
The scheme has drawn attention to the unequal distribution of vaccines between rich and poor countries. A recent estimate by the International Rescue Committee said the WHO’s global COVAX campaign is likely to vaccinate only 20% of the world’s low-income countries by the end of 2021.
“This is a dark under-the-table deal that favors certain countries over others, without any transparency,” said Lawrence Gostin, professor of global health law at Georgetown University in Washington. “Ultimately, it will be low and middle income countries that will lag behind.”
Dr. Nadav Davidovitch, principal of the school of public health at Israel’s Ben Gurion University and an adviser to the government on coronavirus policy, said the deal has raised troubling concerns about the growing inequality of vaccination efforts.
“In order to eradicate or at least efficiently control COVID-19, we need to see the global picture,” said Davidovitch.
This inequality is particularly striking in the case of Israel and Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, who live under varying degrees of Israeli control and have not yet received any vaccines.
While vaccinating its own Arab citizens and Palestinian residents of Israel-annexed East Jerusalem, Israel says it is not responsible for the inoculation of the Palestinians. Edelstein said Israel will consider helping once it takes care of its own citizens.
But the Palestinians and major human rights organizations say Israel remains an occupying force and is responsible for providing vaccines. Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh recently accused Israel of “racism” but has not publicly asked for vaccines.
With tens of thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank working in Israel and West Bank settlements, experts say Israel should share vaccines on ethical and practical grounds.
“I really think we should see how we get the vaccine for the Palestinian Authority,” said Davidovitch, acting chairman of the Israeli Association of Public Health Workers. “We are talking about this with the Minister of Health and I really hope this problem will be resolved soon.”
It is also uncertain exactly what information is shared with Pfizer. Under the edited agreement, “no identifiable health information” will be shared and the study must be published in a recognized medical journal.
It said Israel will provide weekly data to Pfizer on different age and demographic groups. The goal, it said, is to “analyze epidemiological data resulting from the product rollout to determine if herd immunity is achieved after reaching a certain percentage of vaccination coverage in Israel.”
The data, it added, is “intended to end the global COVID-19 pandemic for the benefit of all patients inside and outside Israel.”
Privacy Israel, an advocacy group that had asked the government to make the deal public, welcomed its release, but said certain questions remained unanswered, especially about the handling and security of private information. It also obscured certain details, such as important dates and the names of the officials involved. Still, it said there is “a little more certainty” about sharing information with a global company.
Tehilla Shwartz Altshuler, a digital privacy expert at the Israel Democracy Institute, questioned the ethics of a deal that could make Pfizer millions in profit. She also said that sharing large amounts of information could still endanger individuals’ privacy, even if it were supposedly made anonymous.
“If, God forbid, the dataset is hacked, then the risk is yours,” she said, referring to Israeli citizens.