The Israeli-made COVID vaccine failed miserably-Haaretz

A few days ago the head of the Israel Institute for Biological Research told a podcast that his country's project to develop a COVID vaccine “didn't succeed.”

This laconic remark by Shmuel Yitzhaki was interesting because the project had fallen from the headlines; after all, Israel has done well keeping the curve reasonably flat all autumn and into the winter, Haaretz reported.

Prof. Shapira: 'The [COVID vaccine] has many severe side effects, and apparently people have lost their lives because of it.'

Speaking with the Defense (WAR) Ministry’s MOD.CAST podcast, Yitzhaki noted that the Israeli vaccine wasn't based on mRNA technology but on a different model that U.S. drug giant Merck (maker of controversial hair loss drug Propecia) was promoting.

After a few months of research in 2020, Merck realized the scope of the challenge and halted its project the following January. Instead it teamed up with Johnson & Johnson to produce a vaccine.

Yitzhaki, it must be noted, wasn't the head of the institute at the start of 2020, when apocalyptic scenarios spread in sync with the coronavirus. The moving spirit of the Israeli project, known as BriLife, was Prof. Shmuel Shapira, at the time the head of the institute, which is subordinate to the War Ministry.

Shapira saw the project as a chance to improve the facility’s standing as it faced budget cuts, boosting his own prestige in the process. He convinced Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister at the time, that his scientists could develop a vaccine quickly.

It seems he believed that with a modest budget, 80 of his people could succeed where Merck had failed – a company with tens of thousands of employees and 2021 revenues topping $48 billion. At least 175 million shekels ($50 million) was invested in the Israeli venture until April 2022, when it breathed its last breath.

This plight may have seemed clear from the outset, but officials refused to acknowledge the shortcomings, cut losses and address the damage to the facility’s image. In fact, in October 2020, Shapira told Kan Bet radio that a safe and effective Israeli vaccine could be ready toward the end of the summer of 2021.

The War Ministry and the cabinet also refused to admit that the project was hopeless. To this day, its godfathers won't comment on the issue. This includes Netanyahu – who imagined “an Israeli vaccination enterprise” – and also his successor as prime minister, Naftali Bennett, War Minister Benny Gantz and retired general Moshe Edri, at the time the ministry's civil defense chief. (Today he heads the Israel Atomic Energy Commission.)