Top Israeli Covid Officials Spar Over Mandatory Vaccination

(Bloomberg) --

Top Israeli coronavirus officials took conflicting positions on the need to weigh mandatory inoculation in light of the omicron variant, with the unvaccinated accounting for a large percentage of the country's serious Covid cases.

“Mandatory vaccination needs to be considered, whether through legislation or otherwise, especially given the fact that not only is the pandemic here, but I fear it will get worse,” coronavirus czar Salman Zarka said on 103FM radio. 

He said he changed his mind following the appearance of the new variant, which has been identified in several Israelis. About 680,000 of Israel's 9.3 million people haven't been inoculated at all, Zarka said. 

But Sharon Alroy-Preis, director of public health services, opposed mandatory jabs, adding that while the situation is worrying, it's not an emergency.

“We need to do everything we can in the health ministry to make the vaccinations accessible, to explain, to show the data,” Alroy-Preis said in an interview on the Ynet website.  “I don't think we need to mandate vaccinations.”

A very small number of countries have made vaccines mandatory, though others have required it of federal workers. Israel has restricted incoming and outgoing travel since the emergence of the omicron strain. 

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