In Rabin Square, in front of Tel Aviv City Hall, two huge white capitals have been erected.
It is one of the largest vaccination centers in Israel, set up in a matter of days.
"I registered yesterday on the website and I was summoned this morning," said Hila, a social worker in her sixties met in the short queue.
This country has already vaccinated nearly 20% of its population, or 1.69 million people.
Unparalleled performance in the world.
In France, the “symbolic milestone of 100,000” people bitten should be crossed this weekend, underlined this Saturday the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, by visiting a center in Tarbes (Hautes-Pyrénées).
"Everything seems well organized, it's nice to see that the state takes care of its citizens," says Hila in Tel Aviv.
The mechanics are indeed well oiled.
After presenting a simple identity document, you can access one of the twenty vaccination points set up in about thirty minutes.
“We manage to vaccinate more than 2,500 people a day,” explains Sigalit Dayan, the person in charge of the vaccination center.
To keep up with such a pace, we need a large and well-trained staff.
We are therefore forced to call on nurses who work in parallel in hospitals where services are saturated by the third wave of the coronavirus.
They do not hesitate to do six or seven shifts a week.
"
Book by phone
Several "vaccine pods" of this type have been set up in haste in recent days in Israel, under big tops like in Tel Aviv or in huge sports halls like in Jerusalem.
But most of the injections are carried out in the “Koupot Holim”, these parastatal health insurance funds to which every Israeli must obligatorily contribute.
Divided into four federations, they have dispensaries throughout the country, from the districts of large cities and shopping centers to the most isolated villages.
To this physical omnipresence, is added a very advanced computerization of the system.
On your mobile phone, you can consult your medical file, make an appointment with your doctor or… book your vaccine as easily as possible.
Polls rank Israel's health care system among the country's most popular institutions, along with the military.
The Israelis have great confidence in the medical profession and have massively followed the vaccination instructions.
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“There are only uneducated people to oppose the vaccine.
It is enough to speak with a doctor or to listen to a specialist to understand that we are not at risk.
It must obviously be done as quickly as possible to finally resume a normal life, ”says Anat, a retired teacher.
The government has not skimped on the means to reassure the population.
An intensive advertising campaign was launched on television and the Internet.
Funded by the Ministry of Health, it features several scientific luminaries explaining with a lot of computer graphics the operation of messenger RNA, the new technology at work in Pfizer's serum and that of Moderna, or the procedure of registration of the vaccine.
“Before the campaign began, 40% of the population said they were ready to be immunized.
Today, we see that almost all people at risk rush to the centers, ”says Tamar Fishman-Magen, spokesperson for one of the health funds.
Almost three weeks after the start of the campaign, two thirds of those over 60, the priority target, were vaccinated.
But also tens of thousands of younger Israelis.
Because each evening, the centers have already thawed doses that have not been used because of canceled appointments or a contraindication discovered at the last moment.
The information is then disseminated on social networks.
“I got a message saying there were doses left across town.
I went there immediately and got an injection within ten minutes, ”said Hadar, a 30-something from Jerusalem.
A secret contract
Israel has substantial stocks.
As soon as Pfizer announced the release of a 95% effective product, health officials placed an order.
Benyamin Netanyahu, the Prime Minister, personally picked up his phone to call Albert Bourla, the CEO of the pharmaceutical group.
A few days later, he announced the imminent arrival of eight million doses, enough for half of the country, including recall.
The contract with Pfizer was not made public but an official admitted that the doses had been paid thirty dollars per unit, ten more than the tariff applied to the United States government and the European Union.
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The massification of vaccination now makes Israel a huge laboratory for side effects.
Thanks to the epidemic, health insurance funds have finally agreed to pool their databases.
“For now, the risks appear minimal, at least in the short term.
We will now analyze this easily accessible data thanks to digitization.
Then they will be distributed around the world, ”explains Dr Irène Fermont, president of Esop Israel, the national pharmacovigilance body.
