Vaccinate, 24/7

On Christmas I tweeted:

Operation Warp Speed makes me think that America isn’t finished. We have now vaccinated more people than any other country in the world.

I hope Biden awards Slaoui, Perna, Marks and Bourla the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

and a bit later “Today we celebrate. Tomorrow back to demanding more, faster.” Well, it’s tomorrow and we do need to do more, faster. Israel, for example, is doing better than the United States on vaccinations per capita and they are rolling out 24/7 vaccination clinics.

Health Minister Yuli Edelstein called Thursday to keep the vaccine operation going 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, including on Shabbat.

Regarding the push to carry out vaccinations on Shabbat, Edelstein, who is Orthodox, cited the Jewish legal principle of saving a life, or “pikuah nefesh,” which trumps nearly all other religious requirements.

According to a Channel 12 report Saturday, Clalit, Israel’s largest health maintenance organization, will open 24/7 vaccination centers in Tel Aviv, Haifa and Herzliya in the coming days to help ramp up the pace of the vaccine drive. Additional centers are expected to be opened at a later date.

Israeli hospitals are also to join the vaccination effort next week, and hundreds of IDF medics will also participate, to help expedite the process.

Also, if Britain approves the AZ vaccine this week, as I think they will, it should be immediately approved in the United States, if not as part of Operation Warp Speed then on a right to try basis until fully FDA approved.