Thanks to Demographic Diversity: New Details on the Israeli Victory in the Pfizer Vaccine Race Israel today

CEO Pfizer Burla considered choosing Estonia as the first country to be vaccinated - then Netanyahu made a winning argument • "We have a population of 100 countries - if there is a negative reaction to the vaccine, it will be possible to know if there is a connection to the origin" • Prime Minister raised the lawyers on The line, Ambassador Drummer helped - and the rest is history

• Netanyahu and Edelstein with the vaccine deliveries

  Photo: 

  Motti Millrod

New details about the breakthrough that led to the original procurement agreements between Israel and Pfizer about three months ago. 

In the 30 telephone conversations that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had with Pfizer CEO Albert Burla, the Israeli Ambassador to the United States, Ron Drummer, who recently resigned, also participated. Drummer has further talks with Burla, to persuade him to choose Israel as a "state." The experiment raised several key reasons why Israel is the most appropriate of all countries in the world to vaccinate the entire population before the rest of the world. 

They noted that Israel has a computerized information system with the medical history of all citizens 30 years back.

They emphasized the excellent deployment of HMOs as having the ability to carry out the vaccination process quickly and efficiently, as has indeed happened.

A very significant component was that Israel was a small country, but not too small, so that it could be a kind of "laboratory state" for the rest of the world.

Pfizer representatives replied that Estonia, which is a small country with a good medical deployment and computerized data on the medical history of the population, also meets these criteria.

Here, Netanyahu and Drummer made two winning arguments: they emphasized that Israel is very experienced in emergency situations, so it will be able to respond quickly and flexibly to any situation that may develop if the vaccination campaign encounters a problem.

The other point they raised, and that was the deciding factor, was the diversity of the population in Israel.

"You have a population here that originates from 100 different countries in the world (this is compared to Estonia where the population is quite homogeneous - etc.).

"In the event of any adverse reaction to the vaccine, there will be extensive and accurate medical information about the connection, as it may be, between the origin and the effects of the vaccine," Netanyahu told Burla.

Informed sources told Israel Today that this argument convinced Burla to recommend to Pfizer's board of directors Israel, as a country that would be vaccinated before the rest of the world.

In addition, as he said in the public interviews, Burla was impressed by the intensity with which Netanyahu promoted the procurement of vaccines, and when he insisted on putting the parties' lawyers on the line, in order to avoid legal delays. 

Israeli sources stressed that the agreement with Pfizer in any case did not include disclosure of private medical information about the vaccine recipients, but only general data on affinities and effects between the vaccine and other characteristics.