From Reuters:
A U.S. donation of 500,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses arrived in the Israeli-occupied West Bank and Gaza on Tuesday, as Palestinian officials work to boost uptake and counter a surge in new cases by requiring some workers to get the jab.The Palestinians began administering vaccines in February, but despite having purchased or received what officials have called “an abundance of doses”, uptake has stalled at just 35% of age-eligible Palestinians in the West Bank, and around 11% in Gaza.
With the U.S. donation of 500,000 Moderna doses, facilitated through the global COVAX vaccine-sharing programme, the Palestinians say they have now received 2.5 million doses. The West Bank will take 300,000 of the donation and Gaza 200,000.
"Stalled" is right. Few seem to want the vaccine in the Palestinian areas. A mere 4200 doses a day were administered over the past week. At that rate, they wouldn't run out of the vaccines they already have for seven months - enough time for the US donation to expire! (Assuming about 2.3 million Palestinian adults and 1 million doses already given.)
For months, we were told that Palestinians were being deprived of much needed vaccines. But none of those reporters bothers to take a survey of what Palestinians themselves want.
Hamas is offering cash rewards for people to take vaccines. and both Hamas and the PA are forcing their employees to get vaccinated or else lose their paychecks. The Palestinians are expecting a shipment of a million more vaccines in September, which will again expire before they are used unless there is a significant wave of new people taking the vaccine.
The only survey I found, from June, found that 35% of Palestinians refuse to take the vaccine. But that number seems to be low, since the vaccines have been widely available for months and most people are not bothering to get them.
Meaning that these 500,000 US vaccines should have gone to somewhere people need and want them.
