Israeli Health Ministry extends expiry date for Pfizer COVID shots
Last Thursday, February 3, Israel’s four national health funds were contacted by the government Health Ministry with an important announcement. The announcement referred to the stockpiles of Pfizer COVID shots stored by the health funds and used for the vaccination of Israeli citizens. The supplies had been brought in a while back and they were about to expire, on February 9.
The health funds were told not to discard the doses, however, because the expiry date was being extended by another two weeks.
The discovery was made by Channel 12 News which broadcast it on Sunday; not one of Israel’s online or print media outlets reported on it, however.
And not because it was a trifling incident relating to a few hundred or even a few thousand doses. According to Channel 12’s reporter, had the expiry date not been extended, 250 thousand doses – a quarter of a million vials – would have been trashed.
Israel’s government brought in “vaccine” supplies some time ago, in order to cater to a sizeable demand. With a slew of revelations related to the inefficacy of the shots as well as growing awareness of the associated dangers, vaccine demand has dropped off drastically.
“The health funds told us that the Health Ministry isn’t doing enough to encourage vaccination,” Channel 12’s reporter said. “They said they’re doing their best, but it just isn’t good enough.”
Two weeks’ reprieve may not be enough to make much of a difference unless something dramatic happens in the interim, but the financial incentive to push off the expiry date is huge. Although the actual agreement signed between Pfizer and the Israeli government has never been divulged, according to reports, Israel paid well above the market price for its COVID shots, substantially more than other countries, in order to be granted the coveted status of “first in the world.”
A report on Israel’s Channel 13 claimed that the Israeli government, then headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, agreed to pay $28 per dose (with each person needing – it was then supposed – two doses). The United States paid just $19.50.
$28 multiplied by 250,000 is a lot of money - $7 million, to be precise.
This wasn’t the first time Israel has extended Pfizer’s expiry dates. In September of last year, Israel asked for Pfizer’s agreement to extend the expiry date of around 60,000 COVID “vaccine” doses, which was granted. The new expiry date was fixed for three months hence, and the FDA subsequently gave its own stamp of approval, amending its fact sheet accordingly, with the proviso that this only applied if the doses were stored in the right conditions.
What’s interesting about last week’s extension is that it was not for three months, but only for two weeks, which suggests that the three months’ bonus period has already passed.
Whether this is good news or not for the recipients of these doses is something we will likely never discover.
