JERUSALEM, Israel — Inside the tent, Suheila Abu Rkeek wore a headscarf and traditional Arabic dress, but no mask.
This is a village in Southern Israel’s desert, where the Covid booster vaccination rate is only 12 percent, according to the Ministry of health.
“We saw differences between the first two shots and boosters, but we are just tired of the shots,” said Rkeek in Hebrew.
Israel began administering the fourth dose of Covid-19 vaccination in early 2022. As the first country to offer a second booster shot, Israeli government opens shots to persons in high-risk and those over the age of 60.
Israel will not make a second booster obligatory in the foreseeable future, said Prof. Nadav Davidovitch, director of the School of Public Health at Ben-Gurion University. He says anyone who wants the fourth dose of vaccine can get it.
“It is not an actual policy, but it is what is going on underground.”
The reason for this should be traced back to why governments will begin administering the fourth dose in January 2022. At the time, Omicron was wreaking havoc on Israel.
“Half of Israel was infected with Omicron at the time, including me and my daughter,” Davidovitch said.
Furthermore, preliminary studies reveal that five months following the first booster dose, antibodies will begin to wane. The development of an Omicron-specific vaccination will take much too long. As preliminary results declared, the second booster will make up for it by producing a fivefold increase in antibodies a week after the injection. As a result, governments issued an emergency approval for the fourth dose.
By now, over 500,000 Israelis have received the fourth dose, according to the Ministry of Health. But for some Israel communities, second doses are far from necessary.
Half-hour drive from Israel’s most advanced medical center is Bnei Brak, the settlement of millions of Haredi Jews.
Haredi Judaism, often known as ultra-Orthodox Judaism, adheres to orthodox doctrines and practices. Their strong religious beliefs can sometimes lead to resistance to modern remedies. This creates issues in the event of a pandemic. The city has one of lowest booster vaccination rates, according to Israel’s covid dashboard.
To begin with, most Haredi Jews families are large, usually containing more than 12 or more children. Large families live in cramped quarters where quarantine and isolation are hard to achieve, said Pini Gorelick, a local resident. If one member of the family becomes infected, the entire family will become infected in less than a day. And the buildings followed, Gorelick said.
Religious activities also make distancing an impossible task. Ultra-Orthodox living in the city will gather indoors for Jewish assembly or congregation meetings. It will be easier for communities who live in open villages, Gorelick said, they are able to keep six feets while completing ceremonies. But for the various gatherings in Bnei Brak that happen at least twice a week, people undergo high community transmission.
Gorelick also argues that many people in ultra-Orthodox community, due to the long-term separation from the outside world, don’t believe in science. Some of them believe that praying is an effective technique to heal and protect themselves. Thus, although the community has a high infected rate and most people were severely ill at the beginning of the pandemic, they don’t want to get vaccines.
As a scientific editor for Mishpacha Magazine and a Haredi Judaism member, Tzippy Yarom says that media plays a major role in constructing the communities’ perception of the pandemic.
Since most ultra-Orthodox communities have limited access to the Internet, local news media have huge effects on their minds. On some streets of ultra-Orthodox, people will post news they saw from newspapers, fliers, or other institutions on the walls.
During the pandemic, the wall becomes a large news transmission station. Everyone can post all information on it without censorship and fact-checking, which directly leads to widespread fake news. Yarom recalls she has seen the news on the wall about vaccines will hurt fertility, which is essential for most religious families. Other rumors include that the vaccines killed lots of monkeys during trials and it is harmful to humans.
“The walls are talking to people,” Yarom said.
According to Israel Democracy Institute’s 2021 report, two thirds of Haredi Judaism can access the Internet in their work, but only 42 percent have streaming Internet for private use. Among them, 59 percent used Internet filters that will block unholy contents like “inappropriately” dressed women, violence, and sex. It makes fact-checking an impossible task for individuals.
“It took them time to spread the truth,” Yarom comments on the government’s reaction, “Maybe two months, end of first wave.”
At the time, the Ministry of Health had invested substantial effort in recruiting the support of these religious leaders, stated in a research of Israel’s vaccination. Leaders in ultra-Orthodox communities are convinced, and then suggest their citizens to obtain immunizations, holding the ideals to keep communities working.
Yarom said that in some Hasidic communities, the sub-group within Haredi Judaism, Rabbis don’t want to lock down their communities for quarantines. As waves of the virus came, residents suffered from closed contacts and high infected rates. When those rabbis see vaccines rolling out, they are eager to get them as a way to return to normal life.
“I can’t think of a single community’s Rabbi that is against vaccines,” she said.
But booster shots are different. Yarom said most Rabbis stand for the first two shots and leave their residents to decide whether to get boosters. Most residents Yarom knows will choose not to get boosters.
Speaking for herself, Yarom thinks vaccines will disrupt women’s health balance in some ways. She said she is trying hard to get pregnant during the pandemic, but when she gets the vaccines, her periods are a mess. Some of her other sisters and female friends also have the same problem. Some said they will get periods twice a month, others had endometriosis which disorders their uterus tissues. Although there is no scientific evidence of side effects of booster shots, Yarom doesn’t want to risk her own body.
For other ethnic groups in Israel like Arabs in Bedouin city, locals have a widespread skepticism of the Israeli health systems.
Despite Isreali government’s effort to set up a clinic in the city, Rkeek’s husband is not vaccinated. He got infected a few weeks ago and now stays in bed. But Rkeek has different opinions, and her parents’ families were all vaccinated last year. They are among the earliest local people who get the shots.
The third dose and following shots are not welcoming in this area as well. While Rkeek’s daughter gets her third shot due to college requirements. The rest of her family believes that two doses will suffice. Furthermore, Rkeek said because they are already infected with covid and have very minor symptoms, they are no longer terrified of the disease.
Israel, the highest immunization rate in the world at the start of 2021, is now battling to promote its third, fourth, and subsequent vaccines. Israeli experts revealed a report on the fourth dose’s effects on April 6th. The study found that a second booster reduces COVID-19 infection rates in the elderly, although the protection only lasts four weeks.
Israel and medical facilities throughout the world, according to epidemiologist Davidovitch, are working on modified vaccines that can persist longer and function directly on variants like Omicron. In March, the Sheba Medical Center announced plans to test Omicron variant target vaccination, according to an Israel national newspaper.
Other new vaccine development that is ongoing includes vaccines for children under five years old, and even for pregnant women that can give babies antibodies, said Davidovitch. He said that vaccinating seasonally is not sustainable, but before long-lasting vaccines are invented, there might be one or several more similar formula boosters coming.
“Covid will always surprise everybody, ” Davidovitch said, “but everyone needs life to go on.”