Netanyahu, Gantz visit biological institute for vaccine update

“If you have to choose one: a vaccine,” Netanyahu said. “The hopes of all Israeli citizens and the State of Israel are on you.”

By MAAYAN JAFFE-HOFFMAN
From Left to Right: Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Alternate Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benny Gantz (photo credit: AMOS BEN-GERSHOM/GPO)
From Left to Right: Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Alternate Prime Minister and Defense Minister Benny Gantz
(photo credit: AMOS BEN-GERSHOM/GPO)
Top government officials visited the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR) in Ness Ziona on Sunday to get an update on progress made toward a coronavirus vaccine.
“For years, we have been preparing to protect the State of Israel from existential or very large threats. Now there are two choices, either we will find a vaccine or we won’t,” said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressing the Institute’s researchers. “If you find a vaccine, it’s an amazing thing… I think there’s no more important task than the one you are currently busy with.”
He said that the lab is being tasked with two projects: the development of a vaccine and discovering new treatments or testing capabilities that would allow Israel to function better in the shadow of coronavirus until there is a vaccine.
“If you have to choose one: a vaccine,” Netanyahu said. “The hopes of all Israeli citizens and the State of Israel are on you.”
No concrete update on a vaccine for the novel coronavirus was announced during the visit. However, less than two weeks ago, the institute announced that it had successfully completed its coronavirus vaccine experiments on rodents and was moving on to testing it on other animals and then humans.
The institute has said that, if the experiments go as planned, it could complete vaccine development within a year or less.
IIBR is also working on isolating coronavirus antibodies that could be used for the development of a future drug to treat COVID-19, It filed patent requests for eight types of antibodies last month.
“It is customary to say in the army that the team in the tank will win, and here we see that the team in the laboratory will win,” said Defense Minister Benny Gantz. “You do holy work.”
In addition to Gantz and Netanyahu, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein and National Security Council head Meir Ben Shabat visited IIBR.