Israel ‘Leads the Way’ with 4th COVID Jabs for Vulnerable

 An Israeli man receives a fourth dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against Covid-19 at the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv. (AFP)
An Israeli man receives a fourth dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against Covid-19 at the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv. (AFP)
TT

Israel ‘Leads the Way’ with 4th COVID Jabs for Vulnerable

 An Israeli man receives a fourth dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against Covid-19 at the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv. (AFP)
An Israeli man receives a fourth dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine against Covid-19 at the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv. (AFP)

Israel on Friday started giving fourth Covid vaccine shots to people with weakened immunity, becoming one of the first countries to do so in hopes of countering a case surge driven by the Omicron variant.

The effort comes almost exactly one year after Israel began a massive vaccination drive on the back of a data-sharing accord with US pharmaceutical firm Pfizer.

Israel's health ministry on Thursday approved giving a fourth shot for immunocompromised people, the same day that authorities reported more than 4,000 new cases of the disease, a high not seen since September.

Heart transplant patients were among the first to receive the additional shots at Sheba hospital in Ramat Gan near Tel Aviv, where health workers received test injections this week.

"I was worried at the start but after speaking to my doctor I felt reassured that it was a good thing to do, that it would help," said a 50-year-old woman, Rinat Orion, among the first to receive the fourth shot.

Galia Rahav, a doctor, said: "We had good results with the third dose which only caused secondary effects such as light, localized pain. We can't wait to see the results of this fourth dose."

Cardiologist Yael Peled said it would "increase protection against coronavirus".

'Confront the wave'
Israel on Friday also added residents of retirement homes and geriatric patients to those eligible to take the fourth dose.

"This decision was taken for fear of an increase in cases of contamination in such institutions that would endanger the health of these people," the health ministry said.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has said Israel, which was among the first countries in the world to offer a third shot to the general public, will be a trailblazer for the fourth jab.

"Israel will lead the way in administering a fourth vaccine to the Israeli people," he said.

Chile has announced it will also offer a fourth shot to at-risk people starting in February, while health authorities in Britain and Germany are considering following suit.

More than four million people out of an Israeli population of 9.2 million have received three shots of coronavirus vaccine.

The health ministry said Thursday that Israel will not let up in its fight against the latest Covid-19 variant.

"Our strategy to confront Omicron is clear: the stronger the wave, the more protection we'll need to confront it," the ministry said.

On another front in the battle against the coronavirus pandemic, an Israeli El Al plane flew in Thursday from Belgium carrying a shipment of Pfizer's anti-Covid pill, Paxlovid.

On Friday, Israel recorded a 24-hour tally of 4,916 new coronavirus cases, an increase of 152 percent over the same day last week.

According to researchers at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, new daily infections could rise to 15,000 or even 20,000 within the next 10 days.

A total of almost 1.4 million cases of Covid infection, including 8,243 deaths, have been officially recorded in Israel.



After Harris’ Loss, Angry Democrats Blame Her Boss, Biden

A hand fan depicting US Vice President Kamala Harris lays on a sidewalk in Washington, DC, on November 6, 2024. (AFP)
A hand fan depicting US Vice President Kamala Harris lays on a sidewalk in Washington, DC, on November 6, 2024. (AFP)
TT

After Harris’ Loss, Angry Democrats Blame Her Boss, Biden

A hand fan depicting US Vice President Kamala Harris lays on a sidewalk in Washington, DC, on November 6, 2024. (AFP)
A hand fan depicting US Vice President Kamala Harris lays on a sidewalk in Washington, DC, on November 6, 2024. (AFP)

Anger and soul-searching took hold of the Democratic Party early on Wednesday morning, after Vice President Kamala Harris suffered an election loss that left some party officials and voters dumbfounded.

Harris was the self-styled underdog against her Republican rival, Donald Trump, having joined the race barely three months ago, but the nature of her loss has some Democrats asking questions about the future of the party.

The sharpest criticism contained accusations that the party had lied to its supporters about President Joe Biden's mental fitness until a disastrous TV debate with Trump in June raised alarm bells and ultimately led to the president exiting the race.

One Democratic donor asked: "Why did Joe Biden hold on for as long as he did? He should have not concealed his (health) and dropped out a lot sooner."

Biden, 81, has said privately he thought he was the only Democrat who could beat Trump, and vowed publicly that he was fit to be president for another four years. When he dropped out of the race in July, he said he had decided it was "in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down."

Biden's announcement in April 2023 that he would run for reelection was greeted with skepticism by many Democrats, but likely potential challengers quickly agreed to join his campaign as advisers, rather than challenge him.

The party "needs a complete reboot," said hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, a longtime Democratic donor who endorsed Trump in 2024, on X. "The party lied to the American people about the cognitive health and fitness of the president," he said, and then didn't hold a primary to replace him.

The Harris campaign declined comment and the White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

WOMEN AND YOUNG VOTERS

The concerns ran deeper, though.

Two groups Harris was counting on to beat Trump -- increasingly diverse young voters, believed to be motivated by climate change, liberal values and her social media savvy, and women worried about shrinking abortion rights under a Republican -- moved in his direction instead.

Trump's overall share of voters under 45 was up two percentage points from 2020 as was his share of women voters, Edison Research exit poll data show. Trump also increased his support in many suburban areas, where Democrats thought they had made inroads.

The shift came even as the Harris campaign insisted that the race was close, and that she was picking up new voters.

One Democratic National Committee official said he was fielding angry text messages from party members late on Tuesday night. "They feel lied to by the campaign," the official said.

Trump's anti-immigration rhetoric also appeared to strike a chord with voters even in Democratic heartlands like Connecticut and Massachusetts, mirroring a trend seen in many liberal democracies where high housing and other costs have been blamed on newcomers.

Canada's Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, for example, cut immigration levels under criticism from the right, and Europe's far-right parties have vowed to toughen immigration rules, while peeling away votes from the center left.

Harris' defeat is the Democrats' second bitter loss to Trump over the past three elections. Hillary Clinton's 2016 defeat had paved the way for Biden to run.

A convicted felon, Trump's unorthodox economic proposals, including blanket tariffs on imports, will be costly for US consumers and businesses, economists say. His plans to deport millions of people who are in the country illegally would upend industries and communities.

Still Trump gained with Latino voters, and had easy wins in Georgia and North Carolina, states where Democrats thought they were competitive. Harris' whirlwind campaign, built around an inclusive vision of the United States and stronger fiscal support for families, had emphasized hope and positivity.

Biden and Harris' support of Israel during its assault on Gaza split the Democratic Party, with many progressive Democrats calling unsuccessfully for the US to curb its military aid to Israel. That cost votes among left-leaning Democrats.

Harris remained at her residence in Washington the entire evening while crowds waited outside her alma mater Howard University, where the campaign had set up a stage and a media center, anticipating days of vote-counting before a result.

As the results started to trickle in, her campaign co-chair Cedric Richmond took the stage to tell the dwindling crowds the race wasn't over yet. Hours later, it was.