The vaccine passport has no epidemiological relevance, according to Israel’s health minister, it is simply a means to restrict the unvaccinated from certain venues in the hopes of persuading them to get the COVID shot.
Nitzan Horowitz was caught on a hot mic telling Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked during a meeting that this was the purpose of imposing Green Passport restrictions. Footage of the conversation has gone viral in Israel after first being broadcast by Channel 12.
Shaked: “I think you can remove the Green Passport for restaurants, outside.”
Horowitz: “Pools, too, not just restaurants – from an epidemiological viewpoint, that is correct. The problem is, people who don’t get vaccinated. We need to…”
Shaked: “Right.”
Horowitz: “Otherwise, we’ll never get out of this.”
Horowitz added that he believes the unvaccinated should be barred from malls as well. Currently, malls and supermarkets do not require vaccination status to enter.
“There is a kind of universality to the ‘green pass’ system, other than at malls, where I think it should be imposed, [because] now it’s clear that it applies nowhere,” he said.
But he also explained that despite the lack of evidence that restricting outdoor activities reduces infections, making the regulations universal was easier than making exceptions.
Last week, when announcing sweeping federal vaccine mandates for employment, Biden said his “patience is wearing thin” for the unvaccinated.
This is not the first time Bennett took a line from Biden. A few weeks ago, Bennett also called this fourth wave of COVID infections a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” as did Biden.
On several occasions, Bennett used inflammatory language about Israelis who haven’t been vaccinated calling them “dangerous” and implying that “vaccine refusers” are ticking time bombs walking around with machine guns.
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