Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with Deputy Health Minister R’ Yaakov Litzman, together with senior medical experts in the ministry, to discuss the purchase of vaccines against swine flu.
As was reported earlier by YWN Israel, Litzman opposes the purchase of millions of doses of the vaccine, explaining that in the best of situations, the vaccines will only arrive during or after the winter, too late to head off the expected spread of the illness. He adds that it is uncertain if the vaccines will even be effective.
The prime minister however accepted the position of the ministry experts and decided to veto the deputy minister’s decision, instructing the ministry to order millions of doses of the vaccine at a cost of close to NIS 500 million. Negotiations will begin with drug companies to determine which firm(s) will receive the order.
Health experts insist they will be able to determine the effectiveness of the vaccines before placing the order.
Now what is left to be decided is what agency will pick up the tab for the vaccines, with Litzman insisting it must come from the treasury and not his ministry’s budget.
(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)
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3 Responses
There is something very suspicious about this hyped-up “Swine Flu” hysteria.
I agree with Litzman, who is a very intelligent askan. This looks laike a con job by the drug companies, who stand to make billions from forced-vaccination programs, while thousand, and maybe tens-of-thousands of people, especially children, will be the victims of serious “side effects.”
To #1,
You should think a little deeper. Where did you learn medicine? You sound like Obama- “don’t quarantine Mexico & mexicans, because the horse is already out of the barn”. If they would have, they would have saved millions in health care costs this year due to swine flu. Also, who knows how many wouldn’t have died worldwide if they would have quarantined the people who had swine flu. If the US would have quarantined them, the rest of the world would have followed suit. Can you put a price on one human life? It seems as the freyeh PM has more torah knowledge than the chossid Litzman! And don’t tell me that the vaccine isn’t safe -what happened 30 years ago with side effects would never happen now. And the only reason that they took out thermoseal (mercury) from vaccines is because the gov. is PC and was scared of votes, not because it wasn’t safe.
deepthinker –
why aren’t you thinking of Tisha B’av!!!