How Israel performed on Covid vaccination. Haaretz Report
All the details on the Covid vaccination plan in Israel
"By the end of March we will be the first country to emerge from the Covd-19 pandemic". This is the promise Benyamin Netanyahu made to his fellow citizens in early January. In fact, Israel is the country that has vaccinated the largest percentage of the population in the world , 16% for a total of about 2.5 million people. This figure is very far from the USA which stops at 1.05%, from Germany at 0.38% or from Italy at 0.45%. Add to this that Pfizer has sent additional doses of the vaccine in addition to the first shipment of Moderna. Netanyahu called this operation "Return to Life". The Israeli premier is in a hurry to get his country out of the epidemic because elections will be held on March 23 to elect new members of the Knesset, the Israeli parliament.
Israel: the largest laboratory in the world
The novelty, as regards the Israeli vaccination plan, is that the Israeli Ministry of Health has signed an agreement with Pfizer for which the country will be transformed into the largest laboratory in the world on the Covid-19 vaccine . All vaccination results, including details, will be shared with the pharmaceutical company. An agreement of this type would also have been found with Moderna. Privacy organizations are in turmoil. Not only because more than sensitive health data is being transferred to pharmaceutical companies but also because these same data can be hacked. The Government has ensured that Pfizer is provided with only general statistics but not personal data. In addition, the ministry's director of public health, Dr Sharon Alroy-Pries, assured that the ministry is committed to making public any data it was providing to Pfizer.
Why did Pfizer choose Israel?
Israel is considered one of the countries with the greatest ability to find and process health data. This would have benefited her in sourcing Pfizer and Moderna vaccines . The main reason for this leadership is in the fact that since the early 2000s every medical examination, test, prescription and medical procedure for users of HMOs (Health Maintenance Organizations) it was stored in computer databases. These databases were established to provide physicians with complete and up-to-date access to patient medical records. But during the 2000s, HMOs also started using this data to improve the service they provide to their customers.
A question of privacy
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz dedicated numerous in-depth articles. “This discussion is divided into two fields – reads Haaretz in a longform signed by Asaf Ronel and I do Efrati -. One claims that personal information is totally protected and sharing information can benefit all of humanity. The other declares that it is impossible to protect the information by using it simultaneously to conduct research of considerable value ”. So are the reasons of science and its impact on the community more important or those of the individual, and the protection of his sensitive data? Everything is based on a single issue: trust in institutions. “In other words, the debate is not only scientific but also sociopolitical – continues Haaretz -. As in any study conducted with personal information, trust in the protection of privacy depends on the legal and practical protection of data, and on our trust in those who process the information, which depends first of all on the transparency of the process ". Transparency was ensured because the Israeli government published the details of the agreement with Pfizer.
Failure to involve the Helsinki committee
A crucial point Haaretz focuses on is the lack of involvement of the Helsinki Committee for Medical Research Involving Human Beings. “According to the ethical practice accepted in the scientific community, experiments on people, even those conducted with information already collected, must receive the approval of the Helsinki Committee for medical research involving human beings – continues the Israeli daily -. At first glance, the agreement between Israel and Pfizer appears intended for research purposes . Such research is subject to the rules of the Declaration of Helsinki, which determines what is allowed and prohibited in scientific research involving people ”. For the Israeli ministry of health he came to the conclusion that the agreement between Pfizer and Israel should not be exempted from approval by the Helsinki Committee. “The president of the Helsinki Committee of the Ministry of Health, prof. Eitan Friedman disagrees with this decision. Friedman stressed that a study on the results and efficacy of vaccination is of great value – concludes Haaretz -. But he said his commission wanted to ensure that, in the context of the agreement between Israel and Pfizer, "the rights and privacy of the citizens of the state of Israel are preserved."
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/come-israele-svolta-sulla-vaccinazione-anti-covid-report-haaretz/ on Thu, 28 Jan 2021 10:43:34 +0000.