Call to sanction Israelis who refuse flu vaccination

The strains of this year’s virus have killed 70 people so far this winter, including five children.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Several senior executives of Israel’s health funds called Sunday for sanctions against Israelis who refuse to receive the flu vaccine, amid mounting concern over low inoculation rates and a particularly deadly flu season, Walla reported.

The heads of Israel’s four health funds met at a conference on drug safety, where a panel discussion focused on how to boost vaccination rates as data showed that only about 17% of the general population has received the injection so far.

Leumit CEO Haim Fernandez took the hardest line on the subject, according to the report.

“Sanctions should be applied to those who do not get vaccinated,” Fernandez said, suggesting measures such as withholding monthly child allowances paid by the state or limiting other, unnamed benefits so that “people know that those who do not get vaccinated may be financially harmed.”

Prof. Doron Netzer, head of Clalit’s medical department suggested penalties used abroad.

“There are countries in Europe that do not allow parents to send their children to schools and kindergartens, unequivocally,” he said. “We need to do this here too.”

Clalit is the largest health fund in Israel by far, serving about half the population.

Netzer did admit that when the Health Ministry utilized this coercive measure during the COVID-19 pandemic, “it was a mistake.”

The data proves, however, that while children were rarely endangered by the Coronavirus, this is not the case with the flu.

Dr. Eran Rotman, Deputy CEO and Head of the Health Division at Maccabi Health Services, stopped short of endorsing specific penalties but criticized vaccine refusal sharply.

Parents who do not vaccinate their children not only endanger them, he said, but also place “their entire environment at risk.”

Meuhedet CEO Uzi Bitan pushed back at the harsh approach, advocating for persuasion instead.

“Sanctions do not work in the State of Israel, we need accessibility and understanding,” he said.

Bitan cited the example of the ultra-Orthodox population, which constitutes about 40% of the fund’s members, noting, “We have harnessed them and we are indeed managing to increase vaccination rates” by offering walk-in inoculations, and clearly explaining their importance.

The urgency stems from what health officials describe as an unusually virulent flu season, driven in part by the so-called “K” strain.

Seventy people have died so far this winter within 30 days of diagnosis, including five children and 65 people aged 65 and older.

The report did not specify how many of the adults who died were unvaccinated, but overall only about half of Israelis in that age group have received the flu shot this season.

Three of the five children who died had not been vaccinated.

According to the report, roughly 3,000 flu patients are currently hospitalized, including 51 in intensive care. Nearly a third—978—are children.

Israel imports hundreds of thousands of flu vaccine doses each year, tailored to the strains health officials expect to dominate the season.

Historically, however, public uptake remains low, and the unused doses must be discarded once the season ends.