No shot could mean no pay
Israel’s new dilemma: Can those who have not been vaccinated return to work?
JERUSALEM — After spending much of the past year in lockdown, Tel Aviv makeup artist Artyom Kavnatsky was ready to get back to work. But when he showed up for a recent photo shoot, his employer turned him away. The reason?
He had not been vaccinated against the coronavirus. “He didn’t take me because I didn’t get vaccinated,” Kavnatsky said. “It’s discrimination.”
The breakneck pace of Israel’s vaccination drive has made it one of the few countries able to return to much of its pre-pandemic routine. Bars and businesses, hotels and health clubs have all sprung back to life in Israel, where some 80% of the adult population is fully vaccinated and new infections and COVID-19 deaths have plummeted.
While Israel provides a glimpse of what may be possible with high immunization rates, it also offers insight into the problems that lie ahead: Workplaces and schools are now grappling with what to do with those who refuse to get vaccinated as the next phase in the pandemic again pits public health concerns against individual rights and possibly new questions of equity. One case has ended up in court, and others are expected to.
Israel has relied primarily on a series of incentives meant to encourage people to get a vaccine. It has established a “green pass” for the fully vaccinated whose holders can attend concerts, dine out, go to the gym or travel to popular vacation spots in places like Egypt, Cyprus and Greece. Those who do not have the pass are out of luck.
The system has worked well in leisure and entertainment. But now, it is moving into other realms. Health officials have recommended barring unvaccinated workers who have not recently tested negative for COVID-19 from schools, elder care facilities and other high-risk workplaces.
Israel’s health care system has also mandated that all employees — doctors, nurses, administrators, and support staff alike — receive the vaccine. If they refuse, they will be transferred to jobs that do not involve contact with high-risk patients.
Rights groups have expressed concern that such regulations could jeopardize workers’ income.
Similar concerns exist in education. Tel Aviv University, Israel’s largest, has found an uneasy balance for now.
As the university resumes in-person classes, Eyal Zisser, its deputy rector, said that only students who are vaccinated can be present. Those who are not can continue to learn remotely.
Even with Israel’s success, hundreds of thousands of people remain unvaccinated — some who are opposed to vaccines in general but many who are hesitant to take a shot that was developed so quickly.
The Association for Civil Rights in Israel, a nongovernmental organization that deals with labor issues, said that the long-term application of the green pass raises a potential civil rights issue, and has called on the government to pass legislation on the matter.
“If there is going to be a policy that infringes on the right to employment and on the right for a person to choose what to do with his or her body in order to be employed, then it needs to go through the legislative process,” said spokeswoman Maya Fried.