Posted on 12/20/20
| News Source: JNS
Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu today issued an update on his status after becoming the first Israeli to receive Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine a day earlier, saying he felt fine and urging all Israelis to follow suit.
“I feel great; go get vaccinated. We are emerging from the darkness of the coronavirus into a great light,” said the prime minister.
He warned, however, that it was not yet time for people to let their guard down.
“It is precisely at this time that I ask that everybody be strict about the rules: Distance, hands, masks and avoiding gatherings. The quicker that everyone is vaccinated, the quicker we will return to normalcy … We need your help; it depends on all of us,” stressed Netanyahu.
Netanyahu and Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein were inoculated at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan on live television, kicking off the country’s vaccination drive in what Netanyahu called “a very great day for the State of Israel.”
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After receiving the injection, Netanyahu quipped, paraphrasing astronaut Neil Armstrong’s famous moon-landing quote: “Of that it was said, one small shot for a man—one giant step for the health of mankind.”
Health Minister Edelstein said the vaccination drive would “test the resilience of Israeli society,” but expressed confidence that it would pass with flying colors.
“I am certain that all of us will demonstrate responsibility for one another,” he said, adding, “This vaccine is safe; come and get vaccinated.”
Netanyahu added a special message of gratitude to Pfizer chairman and CEO Albert Bourla, whom he called “a new personal friend of mine, but a huge friend of the State of Israel, and a friend of all humanity.”
“What they [Pfizer] have done is unbelievable. What is even less of a given is that Israel is among the first countries to be vaccinating,” he said. Read more at JNS