In an interview with Channel 12 News, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla was asked why he chose Israel as a case study for Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccines and he responded that he was “impressed with the obsession of your prime minister.”
“Of course, I was talking with several heads of state,” Bourla said. “I spoke to your prime minister. He convinced me that Israel is the place with the right conditions. But also, I was frankly impressed with the obsession of your prime minister. He called me 30 times.”
“He would call me at 3 o’clock in the morning and he would ask me: ‘What about the variants? What data do we have?’ I would say ‘Mr. Prime Minister, it’s 3 o’clock,’ and he would say ‘No, no, don’t worry, tell me.’ Or he would call me to ask about children, saying ‘I need to vaccinate the schools.’ Or to ask about pregnant women.”
“He convinced me frankly that he would be on top of things. And I know that the Israelis have so much experience with managing crises, because of the situation that they live in, surrounded by hostile nations and living under this almost constant war situation. So I felt that they can do it, and I felt that the leader was really going to guarantee that this will happen.”
“So we placed our bet with Israel. We are so happy because the way you executed it was beyond our imagination.”
Excited to receive my 2nd dose of the Pfizer/BioNTech #COVID19 vaccine. There's nothing I want more than for my loved ones and people around the world to have the same opportunity. Although the journey is far from over, we are working tirelessly to beat the virus. pic.twitter.com/ES05WPBLJA
— Albert Bourla (@AlbertBourla) March 10, 2021
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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“So we placed our bet with Israel. We are so happy because the way you executed it was beyond our imagination.”
Well, a bet is quite a succinct way to put it, and one can only imagine how far it was beyond his imagination. In fact, ‘Who would have imagined the naivety’ might have been another way of putting it.