Category: Health

A man is given a dose of the vaccine for Moderna Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at a vaccination site on the South Bronx Educational Campus in Bronx New York on January 10, 2021.

I have Betancur | AFP | Getty Images

GUANGZHOU, China – According to cybersecurity firm Check Point, sellers on the so-called dark web have been advertising more and more Covid-19 vaccines, requesting Bitcoin for payment and failing to deliver the goods.

The dark web is practically a hidden part of the Internet that requires special software to access. It’s known for being a place to buy drugs, firearms, and other illegal goods.

As countries around the world struggle to introduce vaccination programs, opportunistic scammers online are trying to take advantage of these benefits.

Check Point’s search query for vaccines on the dark internet returned over 340 ads across 34 pages, compared to just 8 pages of results from a similar query conducted in early December, the company said in an updated research report released Tuesday.

Unfortunately, while most of us watch with hope, there are some who watch with greed and malice on their minds to capitalize on people’s concern about Covid-19 and protect themselves from the risk of catching it.

The average average price of $ 250 for an unspecified dose of vaccine has now doubled or quadrupled to $ 500 or even up to $ 1000, Check Point said.

Researchers at the cybersecurity company ordered a dose of vaccine from a provider they contacted via the encrypted messaging app Telegram. Researchers were offered a China-made vaccine for Bitcoin worth $ 750. After the researchers paid for and sent their shipping address, the seller’s account was deleted and the package has yet to be delivered.

All vaccine offers required Bitcoin for payment, Check Point said. Bitcoin used to be seen as an anonymous payment method, but has become much more traceable recently.

Check Point said the surge in vaccine advertising could be because people didn’t want to wait for one.

“We believe this is due to an increase in demand from people who don’t want to wait weeks or months to get their vaccination from their countries’ governments,” the company said in a blog post.

According to Check Point, several vendors said they ship vaccine doses in bulk rather than single shots. One vendor said it could sell an order of 10,000 vials for a total of $ 30,000, the researchers said.

A number of listings also appeared to contradict official medical guidelines on doses. A vendor contacted by Check Point offered to sell an unspecified Covid-19 vaccine for Bitcoin worth around $ 300, claiming 14 doses would be required. Some of the approved vaccines only require two doses.

“While most of us watch with hope, unfortunately there are some who watch with greed and malice on their minds to capitalize on people’s concern about Covid-19 and protect themselves from the risk of catching it,” said Check Point said in his blog post.

Pfizer Chairman and CEO Albert Bourla on Tuesday welcomed reports that the US government was pushing to expand eligibility for Covid-19 vaccines, telling CNBC that the US drug giant has adequate supplies available to support such a decision.

“If what we’re hearing is true, it’s very positive,” he said on Squawk Box, as media outlets, including CNBC, reported that the Trump administration was about to issue guidelines on Tuesday urging states to do it all Making age 65 and older eligible for coronavirus vaccines.

“I think that’s exactly what needs to be done,” said Bourla, whose New York-based company makes one of the two emergency vaccines approved by the Food and Drug Administration in the United States. The other was developed by Moderna of Massachusetts. Both vaccinations are designed as a two-dose regimen.

The introduction of the vaccine wasn’t exactly convincing given the goals set by the Trump administration last year. It had hoped to have 20 million Americans vaccinated against Covid by the end of 2020. However, by Tuesday morning, just under 9 million people had received their first shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Around 25.5 million cans were given to states.

Health care workers and long-term care workers and residents were given top priority after the FDA granted limited approval for the two vaccines in December. However, there have been some concerns, particularly among nursing home staff, about receiving the vaccine, which has made it difficult to introduce.

Some states had already started vaccinating additional groups of people. In New Jersey, for example, police officers and firefighters can now get shot. Florida had already extended eligibility to those 65 and over, and there were reports from senior residents of the state waiting in line to be vaccinated and reports from others outside of the state traveling to get the shot .

West Virginia, which has one of the best administrative ratings in the United States, vaccinates members of the general public aged 80 and over, as well as K-12 teachers and staff who are 50 or older. “We don’t have any vaccines in a warehouse on a shelf,” Republican Governor Jim Justice told CNBC on Monday. “What we need now in West Virginia, we need more vaccines,” he said.

An initial concern about coronavirus vaccine use was inadequate supply – and this should, at least early on, be a factor limiting the number of people who could be vaccinated against Covid-19, which it claims has killed at least 376,295 Americans Data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

However, Bourla said insufficient supply currently does not hinder vaccine delivery in the US and other countries where Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech deliver shots.

“So far, I don’t think we have any problems offering fewer vaccines in the country or in the countries to be honest,” said Bourla, who has headed Pfizer since January 2019. “We have a lot more than they can use right now I think the biggest bottleneck right now is making sure we increase our prioritization so we can get more vaccines out.”

Bourla said he has confidence that the challenges faced by the state and local governments in the United States will be addressed. “The bottom line is that everyone is trying to improve at the moment … because everyone feels that this is way below what they wanted to be,” he said. “I am confident that in about a month we can reach the level we have always wanted.”

This week, former FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC that the current intensity of the US coronavirus epidemic requires a high level of urgency in the distribution of vaccines. Gottlieb, also a board member of Pfizer, cited the lack of interest in taking the vaccine as the main reason for offering it to more groups of Americans.

“We live in this kind of conviction that the demand here is endless and not,” said Gottlieb on Monday in “Squawk Box”. “I think by the end of February we will find that we have to open the eligibility pretty wide to get people to get vaccinated. We won’t be in this rationing situation. I think it will work.” to end earlier than we think “

Bourla expressed confidence that Pfizer can also increase production of additional doses of the vaccine. He noted that BioNTech announced on Monday that it had raised its manufacturing target from 1.3 billion to 2 billion cans for 2021. Pfizer has agreed to provide the US government with 200 million doses of its vaccine, enough to vaccinate 100 million people.

“What our manufacturing team did was almost another miracle after our research team rolled out this vaccine in record time,” said Bourla. They are increasing production at speeds that we never thought possible. “

Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC employee and a member of the boards of directors of Pfizer, the genetic testing startup Tempus, and the biotech company Illumina. He is also co-chair of the Healthy Sail Panel of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean.

The Chugai Pharmaceutical Co. company logo will be displayed on Monday, August 18, 2014 at the headquarters of Chugai Pharma Manufacturing Co. in Tokyo, Japan.

Kiyoshi Ota | Bloomberg via Getty Images

SINGAPORE – Shares in Japanese drug maker Chugai Pharmaceutical rose sharply in trading Tuesday after the UK government found the drug tocilizumab was effective in reducing the risk of death and hospital stay for Covid patients.

In trading on Tuesday morning, Chugai’s shares rose 16.26%. The stock has since trimmed some of those gains, but is still trading 7% higher. Tuesday was the first trading day of the week for Chugai shares as Japanese markets were closed on Monday for a holiday.

In a press release on Thursday, the UK said the results of a government-funded clinical trial showed that tocilizumab was among two drugs that “reduced the relative risk of death by 24% when given to patients within 24 hours of entering the intensive care unit was administered “.

The press release also states that patients who received the drugs typically used to treat rheumatoid arthritis “left the intensive care unit an average of 7 to 10 days earlier”.

UK Health and Welfare Secretary Matt Hancock said the results were “another milestone in finding a way out of this pandemic”.

The government also said it will start promoting tocilizumab use in patients admitted to the intensive care unit. NHS will also be working with manufacturer Roche to ensure treatment remains available to UK patients.

Tocilizumab, marketed as Actemra or RoActemra, is part of a joint development between Roche and Chugai. Roche is also the majority shareholder in Chugai.

Last week, Prime Minister Boris Johnson put England on hold to contain a variant of Covid-19 that is more contagious than previous strains.

Coronavirus infection rates continue to rise in many parts of the world even as countries start introducing vaccinations. As a result, some governments have reintroduced social distancing restrictions.

To date, the disease has infected at least 90.8 million people and killed more than 1.9 million people worldwide, according to Johns Hopkins University.

A patient is being transferred to the Royal London Hospital in London during England’s third national lockdown to contain the spread of the coronavirus. Sun January 10, 2021.

Aaron Chown / PA Images via Getty Images

LONDON – England’s Chief Medical Officer Chris Whitty warned Monday that the “next few weeks” will be the worst weeks of the coronavirus pandemic for the UK’s National Health Service.

Speaking to the BBC, Whitty stressed that more than 30,000 people have now been hospitalized with the virus across England alone.

The number of people across the UK who have died from the virus topped 80,000 over the weekend, reaching 81,567, according to Johns Hopkins University. On Friday, London Mayor Sadiq Khan declared a serious incident over the rapid spread of Covid-19 in the British capital. One in 30 Londoners is said to be sick with the virus.

Whitty said that as a result, people would have to “double” compliance with public health restrictions as it would take several weeks for the coronavirus vaccines currently in use to take effect.

“Every single unnecessary contact you have with someone is a potential link in the chain of transmission that leads to a person at risk,” said Whitty.

Vaccine Use Minister Nadhim Zahawi said in a statement released on Sunday that around 1.5 million Britons have now received the Covid-19 surge. He promised that by the end of this week there would be over 1,000 doctor-run locations operating, as well as 223 hospital locations, seven major vaccination centers and the first wave of 200 pharmacies in the community.

In a question and answer session on BBC radio on Monday morning, Whitty said, “I think we were all very relieved.” The government overturned its decision to relax restrictions for five days to allow people to meet over Christmas amid news of a new variant of the coronavirus.

For the first time since the pandemic began, Israel says more than a quarter of the most serious Covid-19 cases requiring hospitalization occur in patients under the age of 60.

The Israeli Ministry of Health blames a new strain first discovered in the UK last month.

Dr. Itamar Grotto, Deputy Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Health, said: “This is because the new British variant is more contagious, especially among young people and children.”

The news that Israel’s hospitals now have a record number of serious Covid cases came within 24 hours of Israel launching a “second dose”. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the first to get his second shot yesterday.

Israel has been commended by the global health community for moving to vaccination so quickly. So far, nearly two million Israelis have received their first shot from around 9 million people. Israel has a highly centralized health system in which everyone has to register in a digital system, which makes it easier for the Ministry of Health to organize the vaccination campaign across the country.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will receive the second dose of the vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on January 9, 2021 at the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan near the coastal city of Tel Aviv.

MIRIAM ALSTER | AFP | Getty Images

Despite its success on the vaccine front, Israel is currently in its third nationwide lockdown due to the virus spreading. Without downplaying concerns about the rising percentage of younger people hospitalized with serious infections, epidemiologist Grotto points out that nearly 70% of Israelis over the age of 60 received their first shot, which gives them some immunity.

CNBC employee and former FDA chief Dr. Scott Gottlieb has been keeping an eye on trends in Israel and Europe since the pandemic started a year ago, and used them as a possible model for what could happen in the US, including the relatively newly discovered British variant.

“If we can use the vaccine, we can probably fight it off,” Gottlieb said, referring to the more dangerous, faster-spreading strain.

He believes the recent and alarming surge in cases in the United States is more related to vacation travel and gatherings, “but the bottom line is that we don’t have a good enough surveillance system to know for sure,” said Gottlieb.

The British variant officially only accounts for 0.2% of the US cases. Gottlieb also warned U.S. health officials that they are not yet looking so carefully for the increasingly dangerous burden ravaging an overstretched South African health system.

Dr. Ashish Jha, the dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, warned in “The News with Shepard Smith” that the US is “flying blind” and “guessing” when it comes to a highly transmissible new variant of coronavirus in the country.

“We don’t know because we don’t do genomic sequencing of the virus the way we do in the UK and other countries,” Jha said. “We have a lot of capacity for sequencing, it’s not that we can’t. We just don’t have it and we have to pull ourselves together and start so we know if there is another variant around.” our country.”

The CDC issued a statement saying that unlike variants in the UK and South Africa, no highly contagious new US variant of the coronavirus had emerged. However, it has been found that there are likely many variants around the world.

Jha’s statements follow reports from the White House coronavirus task force. According to the report, there could be a new variant of Covid that has evolved within the US that is 50% more transferable and is driving proliferation, according to a document obtained from NBC News.

According to a CNBC analysis of Johns Hopkins data, the US recorded 4,085 deaths on Wednesday, the first time the country exceeded 4,000 deaths. Jha told host Shepard Smith it was “mind-boggling” why the US had not done large-scale genome sequencing of people infected with Covid, but noted that he was not “surprised” by the White House leadership.

“A White House that is not engaging, not interested and not really helpful really hampers the national response,” Jha said in an interview on Friday evening. “Some states are starting to fill the void, but it turns out to be a pandemic that having the federal government is really useful.”

President-elect Joe Biden announced a significant shift in the country’s fight against Covid in a new call to free almost all vaccine supplies after he took office.

In a statement to NBC News, a spokesman for Biden’s transition wrote: “The president-elect believes we need to speed up vaccine distribution … and believes the government should stop holding back vaccine supplies so we can get more shots at Americans can get.” Arms now. “

It’s a strategy reversal. Under the Trump administration, the federal government stocked up cans to ensure people could get a second shot. The Pfizer vaccine requires two shots 21 days apart and the Moderna vaccine requires two shots 28 days apart.

To date, states have received more than 22 million doses, but about 70% of those doses are on shelves, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Jha said he “fully supports the move by the Biden team” to release the Covid vaccine doses.

“We are in the middle of a terrible crisis,” said Jha. “We have to get people vaccinated, and it’s important that the first shot is shot in people’s arms and then making sure the second shot comes relatively soon after that I think is doable.”

A patient lies on a stretcher in a hallway near other patients in the congested emergency room at Providence St. Mary Medical Center amid an increase in COVID-19 patients in Southern California on January 5, 2021 in Apple Valley, California.

Mario Tama | Getty Images

Nearly 3,000 people die on average from Covid-19 every day in the US as high-level health officials warn that the worst is yet to come.

The US reported more than 3,400 Covid deaths on Friday, bringing the 7-day average daily neoplasia to a record high of 2,983, up 19% from a week ago. This comes from a CNBC analysis of the data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.

New cases rise to new highs every day. Over the past week, the country has reported an average of more than 247,200 new cases per day, according to Hopkins, a 27% increase from the previous week. Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Friday the outbreak will get worse before it gets better, reiterating comments made by Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, earlier this week.

“We will continue to see a mortality between 2,500 and 5,000 per day,” Redfield told McClatchy in an interview. “It will continue to get worse through January and probably February before we really go around the corner.”

Cases are already skyrocketing almost everywhere, as the country sees a projected surge in the virus last month caused by interstate travel and family gatherings on vacation. According to Hopkins data, the average daily new cases in 47 states increased by at least 5%. Redfield warned Friday that the violent assault on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of President Donald Trump on Wednesday will worsen the outbreak.

“I think you must expect this to be another surge event. They had largely exposed largely exposed people who were all across the Capitol,” he said. “Then these people are all riding in cars, trains and planes that are going home all over the country. So I think this is an event that is likely to lead to a major proliferation event.”

Donald Trump supporters gathered to protest Joe Biden’s certification as a presidential winner in the state capital, St. Paul, Minnesota.

Michael Siluk | Universal Images Group | Getty Images

Redfield, who was named head of the country’s leading health agency by Trump in 2018, will be led by Dr. Rochelle Walensky replaced under President-elect Joe Biden.

As the outbreak grows worse by the day, officials are trying to quickly distribute life-saving doses of vaccine. The initial rollout was slower than expected, but is showing signs of increasing speed. Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, said sales efforts have been slow due in part to the holidays, but the pace should accelerate this month.

The US fired nearly 800,000 shots in 24 hours, according to the agency, up from 600,000 the previous day and most in a one-day period. According to the data, more than 22.1 million doses have been given, but only 6.7 million have been given.

Amid criticism of a slow initial rollout, HHS officials are now urging states to move beyond the first level of prioritization. Healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities should receive the vaccine first, according to the CDC. But HHS Secretary Alex Azar said earlier this week that states should open up to older and more vulnerable Americans if that would accelerate the pace of rollout. The commissioner responsible for food and pharmaceuticals administration, Dr. Stephen Hahn repeated his comments on Friday.

In addition to the pressure to vaccinate quickly, there is the arrival of a new strain of the virus. The new variant, known as B.1.1.7, which was first discovered in the United Kingdom, has now been found in at least seven states. While it doesn’t seem to make people more sick, CDC officials believe it can spread more easily. That could make the outbreak worse and quickly overwhelm hospitals, CDC officials warned last week.

However, states and hospitals face significant hurdles in administering the vaccine doses. Government funding for vaccine distribution was only approved late last month, and much of it has yet to go to facilities in dire need of money, such as increasing the workforce and keeping digital records.

Billionaire Elizabeth Holmes, founder and CEO of Theranos Inc., and Christian Holmes come to a state dinner hosted by US President Barack Obama and US First Lady Michelle Obama in honor of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe at the White House in Washington, DC, USA, on Tuesday April 28th, 2015.

Andrew Harrer | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Prosecutors paint a picture of what the public saw: a billionaire entrepreneur who donned designer labels with her black turtlenecks and rubbed shoulders with world leaders.

But like the Hall of Mirrors at Carnival, everything was just an illusion, according to the government.

Elizabeth Holmes intended to use Theranos “as an instrument to improve her personal situation,” the prosecutor wrote in a request to the court on Friday evening.

“The causal link between the defendant’s fraud and the benefits in question is strong,” the government said.

Holmes and her COO, Ramesh “Sunny” Balwani, face a dozen fraud charges each. If convicted, they can spend up to 20 years in prison.

As Theranos CEO, prosecutors said Holmes led an extravagant lifestyle that included “traveling by private jets, staying at luxury hotels and having access to multiple assistants.”

“Although the defendant’s assistant was an employee of the company, she did a variety of non-business tasks for the defendant, including shopping for personal clothing and jewelry, decorating homes, buying groceries and groceries, and other items,” said the government in one file.

The government’s motion was in response to efforts by Holmes’ attorneys to prevent the jury from finding out details about their jet setting lifestyle.

The government intends to produce evidence that the alleged fraud at Theranos is directly related to the money and fame Holmes has gained as the CEO of Theranos.

Prosecutors wrote that Holmes was “the object of admiration in the local and national business community and has appeared in numerous publications and on television. She has been associated with influential figures such as politicians and business leaders. The evidence in the trial will show these benefits for.” mattered to the defendants, who watched the daily news closely to maintain their image. “

Holmes was a Silicon Valley favorite, attracting more than $ 700 million in investor money.

“In addition to the specific benefits she received from her fraud, she has also benefited from a great deal of positive attention from the media, business leaders and dignitaries,” the prosecutor wrote.

The motion comes the same night that Holmes’ lawyers claim their failed firm is no different from any other Silicon Valley start-up trying to make a name for itself.

The government “is calling for an order preventing the defense from focusing on the Silicon Valley start-up culture, arguing that founders in this area often use exaggeration and dramatic promises to get the attention they need for their businesses generate and attract capital, “the court said of Holmes lawyers.

Her lawyers argue that evidence related to the culture of Silicon Valley startups may be relevant to the case: “For example, the government intends to produce evidence of certain practices that the government claims they have in Theranos A culture of ‘secrecy’ created to show that Ms. Holmes was hiding alleged fraud. “

“While Ms. Holmes has tried to rule out such evidence, Ms. Holmes, if admitted, could certainly provide evidence that other Silicon Valley startups have used similar practices and that people at Theranos were aware of these practices.”

Holmes will face their fate in July. When she appeared on Zoom, she sometimes looked grumpy, a sharp contrast to the image she had once projected onto the world.

Health care workers prepare to get vaccinations for Pfizer Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) in Los Angeles, California on January 7, 2021.

Lucy Nicholson | Reuters

The White House coronavirus task force said there could be a new variant of the virus that has emerged in the United States and is driving the spread, according to a document from NBC News.

The new variant is already spreading in the municipalities in addition to the British variant and is possibly 50% more transferable according to the report published to states on January 3rd.

The task force said the recent spike in cases has been almost double what it saw in the spring and summer seasons, according to the report. The US has at least 228,400 new Covid-19 cases and at least 2,760 virus-related deaths every day, based on a seven-day average calculated by CNBC using data from Johns Hopkins University. The US reported its deadliest day on Thursday with more than 4,000 deaths.

“This acceleration suggests that there may be a US variant that has evolved here, in addition to the UK variant that is already spreading in our communities and potentially 50% more transmissible,” the report said. “Aggressive attenuation must be used to match a more aggressive virus. Without a consistent implementation of effective facial masking (two or three layers and well-fitting) and strict social distancing, epidemics could worsen quickly as these variants spread and prevail. “

Representatives from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately return CNBC’s comments.

Few details were given in the report about the new U.S. strain, including how long it had spread. In the past few weeks, the US has increased its genome sequences to detect other strains.

UK tribe in several states

Public health officials were already concerned about the arrival of a new strain of the virus found in the UK known as B.1.1.7.

The CDC has identified at least 52 Covid-19 cases with the mutation B.1.1.7 in the United States. This emerges from data published on the agency’s website, which was last updated on Thursday. However, the CDC warns that their numbers “do not represent the total number of B.1.1.7 ancestry cases circulating in the United States” and may not coincide with the numbers reported by local officials.

So far, the CDC only shows California, Florida, New York, Colorado and Georgia with cases of variant B.1.1.7, but other states like Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Texas announced the arrival of the tribe in their states on Thursday.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo warned Thursday that the new strain from Britain could force the state into another economic stalemate if it spreads uncontrollably and weakens the state’s hospitals.

“It overtook everything in the UK in three weeks,” said Cuomo. “If the proliferation takes hold in the UK in New York, if the hospitalization rate is increasing, the hospital staff is sick, then we have a real problem and we are at a standstill again.”

Vaccines “now in arms”

In the task force’s report released over the weekend, officials urged states not to delay vaccinating people over 65 who are prone to serious illnesses. “No vaccines should be in the freezer, they should be taken up in arms now. Active and aggressive immunization in the face of this surge would save lives,” they said.

Michael Osterholm, a member of President-elect Joe Biden’s Covid-19 Advisory Board, said Tuesday that more new variants of the virus would likely emerge in the US.

Osterholm, epidemiologist and The director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota said in an interview with CNBC that the strain discovered in the UK was “a very big problem”.

“And it’s the first of likely a number of these strains to emerge when we are at this point in the pandemic,” he added.

A health care worker administers a Covid-19 vaccine at Clalit Health Services in the ultra-Orthodox Israeli city of Bnei Brak on January 6, 2021.

JACK GUEZ | AFP | Getty Images

As the US, UK and Europe try to speed up their own Covid vaccination campaigns, one country is surpassing them all: Israel.

Israel’s vaccination campaign began on December 19 with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the first person to be vaccinated in the country. Priority will be given to people over 60, healthcare workers and all clinically vulnerable people – reportedly making up around a quarter of the 9 million population.

It is ahead of other countries that have also started introducing vaccinations. To date, experts have said that around 1.5 million people in Israel received their first vaccine shot as a new lockdown came amid an increase in coronavirus cases.

According to Dr. Boaz Lev, chairman of the Disease Control and Coronavirus Vaccines Advisory Committee, has now vaccinated around 60% of the priority groups for the vaccine, although some of them are difficult to reach, such as those who only live at home by Israel’s Ministry of Health. The country is vaccinating around 150,000 people daily, he added, and intends to have vaccinated most of the country by April.

“The main goal of our vaccination program is to vaccinate as many people as possible as quickly as possible,” said Lev.

Lessons for the rest of the world

From logistics to public information campaigns, there are a number of lessons other countries could learn from trying to speed up their own vaccination campaigns.

“First of all … plan ahead. Be prepared, run a big information campaign and gain people’s trust, that’s on one side,” Lev told CNBC on Wednesday.

“Then you create a good flow of vaccines, a good flow of people … with a good administrative background so you can register them and let them know when to come for their next push. So there are a lot of things that which is basically about planning ahead and rolling it out to make it flow. “

In this aerial photo, taken in Tel Aviv, Israel, on Monday January 4, 2020, people are queuing outside a Covid-19 mass vaccination center in Rabin Sqaure. Israel plans to vaccinate 70% to 80% of its population by April or May. Health Minister Yuli Edelstein has said.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Israeli officials weren’t sure how many vaccinations the country ordered, but vaccine manufacturers reported that they received 8 million doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine and 6 million doses of the Moderna vaccine (the first batch of which was due to it) Arrival Thursday). It was not disclosed how much Oxford University / AstraZeneca vaccine the country ordered.

All of these vaccines require that each have two doses; There are reports that Israel paid higher vaccine prices than it competed to supply larger countries.

Lev said Israel’s ambitious goal of vaccinating the majority of its population through its public hospitals and vaccination centers requires careful planning. “We have to set up the logistics for this, and that takes a huge effort,” he said.

“The next is to be in the correct order in vaccinating people. Unless we have an abundance of vaccines … we need to have a very orderly queue so we know who is being vaccinated, and that should be loud some Principles, “he added. “It should be safe, it should be flexible, it should be as simple as possible, but it should also follow the principle that those who are more vulnerable should get it first … to avoid mortality and morbidity (of the pandemic) . “

Logistics and sales

Public health experts told CNBC that there were a number of factors that made it possible for Israel to vaccinate so efficiently, including the small population and geography and the efficiency of its health system.

Israel has a public health system in which everyone has to belong to one of four health organizations (HMOs) that work a bit like the UK’s National Health Service. Vaccine supplies were distributed to these HMOs, who in turn distributed them to their respective members.

Ronit Calderon-Margalit, professor of epidemiology at Hadassah-Hebrew University’s Braun School of Public Health, told CNBC on Wednesday that the vaccination campaign exceeded their expectations. “It’s amazing, it’s way beyond my wildest dreams and I don’t get to say that often,” she said.

People will receive a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at a Covid-19 mass vaccination center on Rabin Square in Tel Aviv, Israel on Monday January 4, 2020.

Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images

She attributed part of this success to the efficiency of the four HMOs: Clalit, Maccabi, Meuhedet and Leumit or “Kupot Cholim” as they are collectively known.

“They all have vaccines from the government to vaccinate the population, and they are very good at the logistics of distributing services that vaccines,” she said. Experts told CNBC that at the end of the day, hospitals and clinics are also giving the vaccines to people outside of the priority groups so as not to waste supplies.

The Israeli health system is heavily digitized, so anyone who receives the vaccine is registered as such by the Ministry of Health.

Israel recorded 466,916 cases of the virus and 3,527 deaths as of Thursday, according to Johns Hopkins University. As in other countries, there has been an increase in infections over the winter.

On Wednesday, Netanyahu blamed a new, more transmissible strain of virus, first identified in the UK (what he called the “British mutation”), responsible for an increase in cases in the country. Due to the wave of infections, Israel will enter a new strict lockdown for two weeks on Thursday at midnight.

In addition to vaccination centers and clinics, hospitals are of course at the forefront.

Yoel Har-Even is Director of International and Resource Development at Sheba Medical Center, the largest hospital in the Middle East (and by the way, where Netanyahu was vaccinated in December).

He told CNBC on Wednesday that his hospital had vaccinated around 45,000 people in the past two weeks.

These people range from the most at risk, including police officers and Holocaust survivors, an experience that Har-Even said was very moving, to teachers. He said everyone he met was happy to have received the vaccine (sentiment against vaccines is low in Israel) and the mainstream media of all political lines supported the vaccination campaign.

“We understand that this is a crucial time and everyone here agrees,” said Har-Even. “It reminds us a little of a time of war in Israel and when there is war there is unity.”

He added that people’s acceptance and willingness to receive the vaccine is a cause for great pride.

“You just have to see the lines and the queues of people standing still, there is no pushing or screaming,” he said. “The time of the corona means (the vaccination campaign) that it runs faster, quieter and with much, much more order and efficiency in the process.”