Israel sees low turnout to inject small children with COVID-19 shots

Israel’s COVID-19 injection rollout for small children ages 0.5-5 years is off to a pitiful start, showing that the overwhelming majority of parents in the hyper-vaccinated country are reluctant to give the injections to their small children. 

As of Sunday 780,000 infants and toddlers were eligible to get the shots. Two days in, Channel 13 reported that a total of only 376 appointments were made at all four of Israel’s HMOs. 

Israel’s widespread efforts to inject children 5-11 have not fared well either; while the rollout began in November, only 5% have so far been fully injected according to Health Ministry data. 

Leumit Health Services Chief Medical Director Professor Shlomo Vinker told Israel Hayom that "we will know who should be vaccinated and we'll contact the parents. It stands to reason that we won't see a high turnout, though. If  [the parents] didn't vaccinate older children at a high rate, it's safe to assume the same will be true of babies." 

Israel’s low turnout echoes a similar lack of interest in the United States. Though the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in June recommended the COVID-19 shots for children 0.5-5 years, approximately 3.3% were injected over a month later, according to CDC data, contrasting with 18.5% of 5–11-year-old children in almost the same period. 

Approximately 70% of children have already contracted COVID-19 and thus have natural immunity against the virus. 

“A lot of parents know most young children already have been infected and there were few or no symptoms, so they are not convinced there is a benefit to subjecting their child to the unpredictable risk of suffering a COVID vaccine reaction, especially when you can get vaccinated and still get infected and transmit the virus,” National Vaccine Information Center President and Co-Founder Barbara Loe Fisher told The Epoch Times. 

The CDC was evidently expecting a much higher turnout. 

“We know millions of parents and caregivers are eager to get their young children vaccinated, and with today’s decision, they can,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in June. 

Parents can hardly be faulted for hesitating to inject their children with the COVID-19 shots after being repeatedly misled by public health officials. 

In its recommendation to inject infants and toddlers, the CDC claimed that "COVID-19 vaccines have undergone—and will continue to undergo—the most intensive safety monitoring in U.S. history,” a claim even the CDC has admitted is false. 

In June, America’s Frontline News reported that the CDC admitted in a letter to failing to monitor the COVID-19 injections as it had promised.