In the promised land of those vaccinated against covid

Several citizens wait to be vaccinated against the covid, on January 24 in Jerusalem.MENAHEM KAHANA / AFP

"Hi there.

My name is Heba ”, he introduces himself with a smile, syringe at the ready, at the Assaf Arofeh hospital, south of the Tel Aviv metropolitan area.

“Do you have any allergies?” She asks gently in the busy injection room as she takes a dose from the vial of Pfizer-BioNTech.

His name means "divine gift" in Arabic.

Like one in four nurses in the public health system, she is an Israeli of Palestinian origin.

"Sit here".

He continues his gentle routine.

"What is your dominant arm, the right one?"

The drizzle soaked at noon last Thursday the reception tent of the hospital's vaccination center.

Still looking at the cell phone, dozens of thirty-somethings from Gush Dan, the urban heart of deep Israel, skilled in

chutzpa

or impudence, advanced positions in line before the impassive foreign journalists, recently arrived from Jerusalem.

Guards in the black short-sleeved overcoat that uniforms - at nearby Ben Gurion airport or at checkpoints that line the West Bank - private security watched the blatant

surprise with

pleasure

.

"Passport?

Authorization?

Where does it come from?

Hey?".

The usual.

- "My name is Carlos, I'm from Sepharad."

- "Uncover your left shoulder," requests nurse Heba before inoculating the first injection against covid-19, which comes from her hand as a gift from heaven.

More than three million Israelis, a third of the population, have already received the first dose in just over a month of the vaccination campaign.

Of them, more than half (19%) have been inoculated with the second and final in an accelerated career without global comparison.

The Jewish State aims to achieve herd immunity against the coronavirus, by vaccinating more than two-thirds of all its residents between the end of March and the month of May.

It is a “massive clinical trial”, in the words of EL PAÍS scientific analyst

Javier Sampedro,

to "know if the vaccinated, in addition to getting rid of the most serious symptoms of covid, spread the virus less".

A preliminary report, not yet thoroughly reviewed by experts, released on Friday by the Ministry of Health indicates that only 317 COVID infections have been registered among the first 715,427 Israelis who received the two doses of Pfizer: an infection rate of 0.044 %.

No one seemed to feel like a guinea pig at Assaf Arofeh Hospital, where medical data was recorded to be released to the manufacturing pharmaceutical company.

Foreign inmates in Israeli prisons, including more than 4,000 Palestinians, have begun to be vaccinated.

Among other groups with habitual residence, international journalists have also been included in the so

-

called

Operation Return to Living

of the Ministry of Health, for the sake of group immunity.

Vaccinations take place amid the organized chaos that characterizes daily life in Israel.

Seemingly endless queues speed up in minutes.

"Complete this form.

Follow.

Now we record your personal data on the computer.

Go to the area where the nurse is.

It is done.

There in the background they will give you an appointment for the second dose in three weeks.

Don't have local health insurance?

Don't worry, you don't have to pay anything.

You will receive an SMS with the manufacturing batch number in case an adverse reaction occurs ... ”.

An incoming message rings on the mobile.

The universal health system, managed through non-profit mutual societies;

a state-of-the-art computer database with the history of each patient, and a certain military discipline, which to many evokes the long years of compulsory military service for men and women, are some of the causes of the success of vaccination in Israel.

Having paid presumably twice as much as in the EU or US for each dose and the transfer of data from millions of patients has also led to Pfizer-BioNTech committing to deliver 10 million doses before the end of March, when they are Crucial legislative elections called for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

To these shipments will be added another six million from Moderna's vaccine and an unknown number from AstraZeneca and other laboratories.

Israel may be on the verge of accumulating a surplus of vaccines.

In recent days, the influx to health centers has begun to slow down, despite the fact that the Government has extended until Friday a general confinement that lasts for three weeks and keeps Ben Gurion airport closed, at least until Sunday, gate entry to the country.

The Minister of Health, Yuli Edelstein, has reiterated that he will first guarantee the supply for his citizens: “Then we will see if there are enough vaccines to share with our closest neighbors.

That the Palestinians are in a bad (health) situation is against our interests ”.

The Palestinian Authority is to receive 5,000 doses of Moderna from the Israeli government this week, according to the Hebrew press.

The Palestine Liberation Organization has demanded that Israel, as an occupying power since 1967, take over vaccinations in Gaza and the West Bank.

The Israeli Government maintains that after the 1993 Oslo Accords the Palestinian Authority is responsible for its own health system.

The injection produces a sensation close to glimpsing the exit of the tunnel.

But one does not quite sleep well after vaccination.

And he keeps thinking about family and friends, who have been fighting to stay safe from the virus for about a year.

Or in the colleagues of the newspaper who work without immunization yet, for example, to reveal the commercial tricks of the pharmaceutical companies or the traps of high positions that skip the priority of the risk groups.

Or in all those who suffer the consequences of the pandemic.

The fortune of being a foreign reporter in the promised land of the vaccinated is not enough to fall asleep in the midst of this endless nightmare.

Information about the coronavirus

- Here you can follow the last hour on the evolution of the pandemic

- Restrictions search engine: What can I do in my municipality?

- This is how the coronavirus curve evolves in the world

- Download the tracking application for Spain

- Guide to action against the disease