It is possible that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Health Minister Yuli Edelstein will be the first in Israel to receive the coronavirus vaccine outside of clinical trials, Channel 12 reported on Friday.
According to private conversations brought to the public eye, the two will get vaccinated in front of cameras in a public attempt to encourage the public to get vaccinated themselves.
Netanyahu praised Israel's efforts to contain the coronavirus on Friday, following two major developments in Israel's coronavirus vaccine plan. It was announced shortly prior that Israel could receive doses of Pfizer's vaccine in the coming weeks, and on Thursday Israel and Moderna signed a contract tripling the amount of vaccines the Jewish State is set to receive from the biopharmaceutical company.
Netanyahu said that Israel's initial and subsequent coronavirus response saved a lot of lives, and that compared to other countries "mortality in Israel is low. In Sweden, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Switzerland and the Netherlands, countries our size in terms of population, the mortality rate per capita is between two and five times what it is here in Israel.”
The announcement comes a day after former US Presidents Barack Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton said they were willing to be vaccinated against the novel coronavirus on television in order to ease any public skepticism over the safety of new vaccines.
"I may end up taking it on TV or having it filmed, just so that people know that I trust this science," said Obama.
That same day, US President-elect Joe Biden said he would also get vaccinated publicly.Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman, Reuters contributed to this report.