With Felicia Schwartz and Dov Lieber
BNEI BRAK, Israel – Israel’s effort to eradicate pandemics has been hitting a hard-working ultraorthodox community that has proven anti-lock-in and anti-lockout and suspicious of the country’s massive vaccination campaign.
On Sunday, thousands of ultraorthodox mourners attended two funerals of famous rabbits that died from the virus. The mourners banned public gatherings of no more than 10 people on the same day the Israeli cabinet extended a tight lock that includes a ban on international flights. Thousands of people dressed in black woolen hats and round suits together, many without masks, images of the event show. Fearing violence, the police stepped away from the arrest while some key Israeli politicians leaked out.
“This is what unfair coercion looks like,” said Benny Gantz, the defense minister and leader of the Blue and White party. “Millions of families and children are locked in their homes and abiding by the rules while thousands of haredim people bury the funeral, mostly even without a mask,” he said, using the word Hebrew for ultraorthodox.
The funerals followed anti-lockout protests in Bnei Brak and other ultraorthodox cities the previous week, in which ultraorthodox men threw rocks at police, lit dumpsters on fire and knocked down street signs and poles. aotrom.
Israeli health officials have also been fighting an ultraorthodox coax to take the Covid-19 vaccine. While many Israelis have been vaccinated, the ultraorthodox population has been slower to board, with some questioning the safety of the vaccine and others suggesting that citizens of countries are using them to test effectiveness.
“This is not a vaccine. This is a test,” said Izhar Mahpud, a 57-year-old resident of Bnei Brak, an ultraorthodox city just east of Tel Aviv that has been hit by one of the biggest blows. hard with Covid-19 in the country. “I’m not ready to be a rat in a lab.”
Israel aims to vaccinate the majority of its population by March and get the economy back on track, allowing the small country along the Mediterranean to be a global showcase for how to recover the deadly virus. But the ultraorthodox has undermined these lofty goals, largely by pushing locks and refusing vaccines.
Israeli ultraorthodox make up about 12% of the population but make up nearly a third of the country’s coronavirus diseases. Israel currently has 68,331 active coronavirus cases with new infections circulating at around 7,000 per day.
Officials are scrambling to get the latest promotion under control. British variants of the virus make up about 70% of common coronavirus diseases, even as nearly a third of Israelis received their first dose of vaccine. Last year Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu banned international flights and lawmakers passed a bill Sunday doubling charges for locking violations.
Public health officials say the ultra-direct community is particularly at risk from the swift virus. Their large families usually live in crowded places and traditionally slow down electronic communications that help get information about the vaccines.
Data from the Israeli health ministry shows that Israeli ultraorthodox are receiving the vaccine at a lower rate than other groups. Among those over 60, for whom the campaign has been the longest open, 85% of all Israelis have been vaccinated, compared to 78% of ultraorthodox Israelis.
Ultraorthodox and Arab cities are lagging behind in complete protection against the virus due to lower vaccine levels, according to Eran Segal, a computer biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science who presented his findings to the Israeli government Sunday afternoon. . “This is going to reduce the spread of the pandemic,” Mr Segal said.
Health officials say infections in ultraorthodox communities have declined in recent days, as some major rabbits have backed vaccines. Efforts are also underway to counter misinformation and force residents to be vaccinated.
In the ultraorthodox city of Bnei Brak, local officials have set up a war room, which is an oval-shaped wooden panel room on the upper floor of town hall. With pictures of important religious people lining the walls, young ultraorthodox sit around a large round table with large jugs of hand sanitizer and work on the phones. They also look at spreadsheets with information about everyone who has or has not been vaccinated.
Officials had contacted nearly 10,000 who had not been vaccinated – and spoke to nearly 7,000 of them. About 5,000 said they wanted a vaccine but could not yet get one. Another 1,500 or so wanted to be vaccinated. City officials will work to overcome any obstacles raised on the calls.
For those who do not have a trip to a vaccination center, they will arrange one. If vaccine recipients are unable to contact their health insurance providers, they also help. And if no-one who reaches out to them is vaccinated, they wonder why.
Avi Blumenthal, who is directing the health ministry’s reach to the ultraorthodox, said he and his staff are combing through lists of Israel’s ultraorthodox cities to find the rabbits that are against vaccines, and answers that sought. In one case, the ultraorthodox community in Jerusalem had low vaccination levels that many maintained because of rabbi’s anti-vaccine stance. But when health officials interviewed the rabbi, they learned that he was actually getting vaccinated – someone had spread a rumor telling him that the vaccine was dangerous.
Yehuda Shaish, 63, who runs four ultra-direct schools in Bnei Brak and nearby towns, said he will wait for the rabbits to bless the vaccines. “After the rabbits gave him permission, I happily went,” he said.
Even with rabbis blessings, many ultraorthodox are still skeptical about vaccines. Yedidya Hasson, 28, who manages a network of WhatsApp groups with 30,000 people where members circulate information questioning the wisdom of vaccines and coronavirus restrictions. He refuses to be vaccinated and believes that others should not because they have health risks.
“When it comes to vaccines,” he said, “I think the media in Israel is hiding the truth.”
Some ultraorthodox leaders say that while poor trust in the community may help explain the fight against vaccines and recent demonstrations of civic dissatisfaction, that trust does not justify rules that endangering public health. “You expect from religious men to be more moral,” said Rabbi Dov Halbertal, a prominent ultraorthodox lawyer and commentator. “But when it comes to the ultimate test of saving lives, we fail.”
Write to Felicia Schwartz at [email protected]
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
02-01-21 1228ET