Chances are that if you are reading this you are not vaccinated against the COVID-19 disease yet. Only 6% of the United States population and 7% of Hoosiers have been fully vaccinated. The vaccine is in high demand as new strains of the original COVID-19 disease develop and spread. You might be on a long waiting list to receive your shot through one of the local Goshen/Elkhart health clinics or know someone who is.
Now with the new FDA approved Johnson & Johnson vaccine contributing to the total of 3 highly effective vaccines being administered by the hundred thousands per day, there will be enough vaccines for every adult who wants it as soon as May of 2021 (not accounting for any distribution problems or other unforeseen issues). The steady rise of the vaccine rollout rate in the United States is exciting but while we wait, how are other countries doing with the vaccination process?
Israel, with a population of 9 million, has now vaccinated over half of its population with the first dose and over a third of its population with both doses. Israel has the fastest vaccination pace per capita of any country and has seen extremely successful results from the vaccines administered. Sounds too good to be true right? The high vaccination rates are a bit of a two-sided coin. Racing against the vaccine rollout rate is the exceedingly high infection rate within the country.
Contrarily, in Arab neighborhoods within occupied territories in Israel, vaccination rates have remained below average. Unlike the rest of Israel, only a few thousand doses of the vaccine have been made available in the Palestinian West Bank and Gaza. According to Matthias Kennes, a medical advisor working in the West Bank, “you are over 60 times more likely to have a vaccination in Israel than in Palestine”. Not even all healthcare workers in these occupied locations are vaccinated. As the occupying power with millions of vaccines and as the country that leads the world in vaccination rate, it is Israel’s responsibility both morally and legally–under the Geneva Conventions–to provide vaccinations to the near 5 million resident Palestinians that make up the population of Gaza and the West Bank.
Sources
https://www.bbc.com/news/55800921
https://ldi.upenn.edu/news/overview-israels-universal-health-care-system
https://www.msf.org/stark-inequality-covid-19-vaccination-between-israel-and-palestine
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/27/health/covid-vaccine-johnson-and-johnson.html
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/21/health/us-vaccination-timeline-analysis/index.html