Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett attended the inauguration of a new vaccination center in Jerusalem’s Cinema City movie theater Wednesday morning, as Israel moves forward with its mass vaccination campaign promoting a third dose for Israelis over the age of 60.
During the visit, Bennett said that his government hopes to avoid a fourth lockdown, but hinted that he may impose new closures if infection rates continue to rise.
“Our goal is to keep Israel open, but not if we get to a situation where the hospitals one day will have to tell people ‘There’s no room here, you can’t come in’. That cannot happen in Israel. We can calculate whether we’ll get to that point, and our goal is to not get there. But we know when to hit the brakes. So the public needs to work together; we can avoid getting to the point we don’t want to reach.”
Bennett went on to claim that the “most effective tool of all is the mask.”
“When both people wear masks we cut the risk of infection by 98%. It is unbelievable, it’s even more effective than the vaccines.”
Accord to Reuters, the 98% risk reduction figure is based on unsubstantiated social media claims, with the US Centers for Disease Control saying it was aware of no data which confirmed the claim.
The Prime Minister rejected criticism of the mass-vaccination campaign, saying the vaccines are still highly useful, despite a spike in the number of vaccinated Israelis being diagnosed with COVID.
“People think the vaccines don’t work. No, they work great. When you get vaccinated, the level of antibodies and protection is high, but over time, the level drops off, like in an iPhone battery. What we’re doing now with elderly people, because their drop-off is quicker, is simply to recharge the iPhone. It works but we need to wear masks, especially for people in middle age, people in their 40s, since we still aren’t letting them get a third dose.”