Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said on Wednesday that he’s being attacked by anti-vaxxers for his role in encouraging Israelis to be vaccinated for the coronavirus.
Anti-vaxxers have dubbed him “Mengele” – comparing him to the notorious Nazi Dr. Mengele YM”S for “pushing the needle” and have also accused him of pushing the government to pass legislation forcing Israelis to be vaccinated, a claim Edelstein vehemently denies.
“I’m being called Dr. Mengele, the cursed Nazi murderer because my office is obtaining vaccines for the entire public,” Edelstein said. “Being vaccinated is not an obligation – it wasn’t and won’t be. Being vaccinated is a right. It is my duty as health minister to ensure that we’ll have enough vaccines for all Israelis. If you want to vaccinate, then vaccinate and if you don’t want to vaccinate, don’t vaccinate.”
Health Ministry Director-General Chezy Levy reiterated Edelstein’s message on Wednesday, saying that Israeli law doesn’t allow for forced vaccinations. Levy also said that up to a half of million doses of the Pfizer vaccine are expected to arrive in Israel as early as December, a month earlier than estimated. Additional vaccine batches will arrive in the first two quarters of 2021, with the first vaccines to be designated for medical workers. The general population is not expected to be vaccinated this winter.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Edelstein visited the Teva SLE Logistic Center, which houses the giant freezers necessary to store the Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines at -60°C to -80°C.
Netanyahu spoke to the press, reassuring the Israeli public that Israel is obtaining millions of vaccine doses, enough for anyone who wants to vaccinate to do so more than once and “from what we see here, we won’t have any logistical challenges storing, freezing or distributing the vaccines.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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8 Responses
Anti vaxxers need to be bann[ish]ed from every single Shul, supermarket, public building, mode of transportation, and basically be sent packing into total recluse, so as not to pose any risk to any normal “self caring” Israeli.
The anti vaxxers should be forced to vaccinate. If they wish to wait and see how safe it is, that’s okay. But for them to put the rest of the population in jeopardy is רציחה – that’s Mengeleism – not vaccinating.
everyone should be vaccinated against the Flu , I will wait for Israel to create a vaccine that I can trust, Pfizer is not one with great credit
I don’t trust him. He has shown himself to be a tyrant who has no respect for the individual.
As far as I have been able to verify, the only one calling Edelstein Mengele is Edelstein! But this is to be expected. Lying seems to come easily to many government officials. Edelstein just a week or so ago labeled “a serious crime” the publication of the contract between the Government of Israel and Pfizer Inc.. What must have upset him is making public the clause that requires the GOI to assume all responsibilities for the damage and deaths the vaccine will cause. That of course means that it will be the Israeli taxpayer that shells out the compensation. This is a standard clause in all vaccine contracts. You may wonder why and justifiable so. The reason is simple. There is no insurance company anywhere in the world that will insure a vaccine! Really? I wonder why? Maybe they know a few things we don’t know?
Here we are with these Anti-Vaxers: Not only do they endanger the entire public, even those who do get vaxinated but they call those to are trying to stop the pandemic as Nazis!
I have asked this before, in other contexts, but I will ask again: What does Halachah tell us about getting – or not getting – vaccinated. I think the mitzvah of chesed requires us to get a vaccine unless we have some specific, sound, independently verifiable medical reason why we cannot get vaccinated.
The anti-vaxxers will prove that Darwin was right. 🙁