Israel’s first Covid-19 vaccine was easy. Now comes the hard part.

I’m healthy, my body knows how to get over it, ”said Tamir Hefetz, 46, one of the organizers of the anti-vaccination show. “The green passport is awful.”

In the late stages of its vaccination campaign, Israel is trying to persuade captives to get the vaccine before new variants of the coronavirus raise disease levels again, causing further damage to the country’s economy.

But the hard pockets facing the Israeli government reflect the struggles that await many Western countries, including the U.S., once they have taken up many of their numbers. into.

“The further you go, the harder it will get,” Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said in an interview. “It’s just like running a marathon. ”

With more than 55% of their population receiving at least one vision – and more than 46% by two – Israel’s vaccination campaign has reached an critical stage. After peaking at more than 230,000 beats a day in mid-January, vaccine distribution has slowed in recent weeks to around 100,000 per day.

Experts warn that if Israel is to reach a level of protectionism and detection that will allow it to move around several rounds of economic openings and locks, that pace must accelerate.

Gili Regev, director of the epidemiology department of Sheba Medical Center, said Israel will not reach herd immunity with the British variant until 80% of the population is vaccinated, which is not currently possible until minors can 16 take the photograph. By then, she said, just circulating as many people as possible over 16 will improve the outlook.

“The more people who are vaccinated, the safer it is for everyone,” she said.

Dr. Regev estimates that only about 4% of Israelis receiving vaccination refuse it, but there are many others who did not bother to get the picture, despite the fact that individual cities establishing mobile inclusion sites and public awareness campaigns. The Israeli government has also developed a complex incentive system, based around the green passports, that allows vaccinated people to access fitness, dinner and entertainment options that are mostly sealed at the time of locked locks and still remain. largely closed to the unvaccinated.

Since the vaccination campaign began, Israeli health maintenance organizations have targeted everyone who qualifies for text messages, phone calls and emails to be drawn to vaccine sites.

Such appeals still fall on deaf ears for the likes of Katy Drabkin of Holon, a city south of Tel Aviv. She recently cycled with a vaccination center in the city, and then persuaded several individuals not to take pictures. She does not trust information from the mainstream media about the vaccines, and denies discrimination for refusing a bullet.

“What is happening now is that our media belongs to the building, which belongs to people with an interest in selling,” she said. “So now, they’re just convincing everyone that a pandemic is dangerous. ”

Shiri, 45, who was present at the anti-vaccination show in Tel Aviv but refused to give her last name because she feared it had an impact on the industry, is also skeptical that worth a bullet. She brought her husband and three children together to hand out the anti-vaccination stickers to passers-by.

“I’m not sure if this is safe or working,” she said, referring to the vaccine.

Israel went well first in the first wave of the pandemic but suffered a second wave of crutches after reopening too early in the summer, which halted the second lockout. The country was locked up again in December after the spread of Britain ‘s even more serious third – wave virus. To date more than 6,000 people have died from Covid-19, and the closures have cost the Israeli economy billions of dollars.

The campaign for vaccination is moving some grip. Amos Yekutiel of Jerusalem said he had no plans to get vaccinated but did so after passing a vaccine site set up in a neighborhood bar. His friends warned him he could not visit until he received the vaccine pushing the 36-year-old counselor through the door.

“I’m not a conspiracy theorist, I didn’t think I needed him,” he said. Now that he has changed his mind, he is excited to go to restaurants and go to a group dinner. “It will give you more freedom.”

To further control the suspicions, the Israeli health ministry is also targeting false news about the vaccines, spread especially over social media. Health officials are working with the Israeli Ministry of Justice to bring down false information about the vaccines and are also posting information to vaccine legends.

In Jerusalem, two religious students said that even as many of their friends had persuaded them not to get the vaccine, they eventually went ahead after questioning volunteer doctors and doctors about how it works and communicates with their parents.

“[At first] we looked at each other and said of ‘no course,’ said Yaakov Silverman, 21, who was eating ice cream when a volunteer found him and his friend and advised him to go for a shot at a nearby bar . “But we asked a question or two… and we talked to each other about it and we said: ‘Why don’t we just do it?’ ”

–Dov Lieber in Tel Aviv contributed to this article.