Israel leads world in coronavirus vaccinations: Over 1 million receive doses
03 January 2021
Israel is leading the world in COVID-19 vaccinations, with over 1 million people receiving jabs — a rate of 12.59 doses per 100 people, new data from an Oxford University-run tracking site shows.
Why it matters: As the countries like the U.S. have fallen behind on immunization goals, Israel has given coronavirus doses to over 10% of its population of 9.2 million since it began administering Pfizer/BioNTech's vaccine on Dec. 19.
Photo: Our World in Data
The big picture: Israel is on its third national lockdown, with over 3,300 deaths from COVID-19 and 435,000 cases. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the country "could emerge from the pandemic as early as February" as it delivers doses to some 150,000 people per day, the BBC notes.
- The country has also struck deals with Moderna and other coronavirus vaccine producers. Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip aren't covered by the rollout, which the Palestinian Authority hasn't officially requested, the Guardian reports.
- Israeli officials have indicated they may give Palestinians surplus vaccines and the UN-led COVAX initiative plans to distribute doses to the territories.
For the record: The U.S. has administered 4.23 million doses, a rate of 1.28 per 100 people as of Saturday, per the figures from the Oxford-run Our World in Data, which measures single doses of the vaccine that usually requires two jabs.
- President-elect Joe Biden criticized the Trump administration last week for "falling behind" on its goal of 20 million Americans receiving the coronavirus vaccine by the end of 2020. Trump blamed states for the distribution delays.
- NIAID director Anthony Fauci expects to see an increase in vaccine momentum this month that will enable health officials to catch up to the projected pace.
Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times
Section2Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.
Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.
The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.
- The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.
What the transcripts say:
- Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
- The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
- Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."
Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.