Posted on 07/26/21
| News Source: i24
Former prime minister says country needs two million more doses so elderly citizens can get booster shot
Israeli Opposition Leader Benjamin Netanyahu criticized the new government's handling of coronavirus vaccines during a Likud faction meeting in the Knesset.
The former prime minister posted a video of his speech to Twitter, accusing the government of failing to bring millions of vaccine to the country already paid for so that elderly citizens can be administered a third dose to protect against the delta variant that has caused an uptick in daily reported infections.
"They distribute jobs (referring to Yair Golan and Eli Avidar who were recently given cabinet posts) instead of distributing the third vaccine to Israeli citizens — that is the only way to save lives and keep the economy open," Netanyahu said in the Twitter post. "Get the vaccine right away!"
Netanyahu said that the country needs two million more vaccines so that the elderly can receive the booster shot.
Netanyahu spoke several times recently with the CEOs of Pfizer and Moderna to push for a third vaccine dose without informing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett
He reportedly did not let Bennett know prior to the phone conversations with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla and Moderna CEO Stéphane Bancel and did not update Bennett on the issue after the talks.
Israel is already offering a third vaccine dose to immunocompromised adults, earlier this month becoming the first country to implement this policy. However, it is clear that Netanyahu believes that the government needs to step up its distribution efforts of the third vaccine to the elderly.