Israel Defence Forces medics drafted in to help nurses in Covid vaccination drive

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, center, and his Health Minister Yuli Edelstein, second left, attend the arrival of plane with a shipment of Pfizer coronavirus vaccines

Credit: Motti Millrod /Pool Haaretz 

Israel’s army is deploying hundreds of battle-hardened medics to vaccinate civilians as part of the world’s largest inoculation drive. 

The Jewish state has already given the first of two jabs to nearly 20 per cent of the population and has ordered a further six million doses of the vaccine, as it strives to restore normality by the Spring. 

A key pillar of the strategy is the Israel Defence Forces, which is sending up to 700 reservist medics to assist nurses in administering jabs across the country.

Speaking to the Telegraph, IDF medical commander Col Tomer Koler said the medics were no stranger to working extremely long hours and that all had frontline experience treating soldiers, such as in operations at the border with Lebanon and Syria. 

Global vaccinations doses administered

“We are recruiting medics who are on reserve, training them and sending them to HMOs [Israeli healthcare providers] to help with vaccinations,” he said.

“They completed mandatory service in the IDF and are now civilians. We called them back for three months as reserve soldiers….all of them have experience of treating wounded or sick soldiers.”

The IDF has focused on recalling around 700 young medics in their 20s and 30s, on the grounds that they wouldn’t need much extra training to be brought up to speed with vaccination procedures.

“They can work from dusk until dawn. It is a major operation to enlist such a large amount of medics but we are able to do it,” Col Koler added.

Boris Johnson has said that Britain’s army will play a significant role in the UK’s own vaccination drive, with the military relying on "battle preparation techniques" to help meet the ambitious target of 13m inoculations by mid-February. 

Tory backbenchers have been closely watching Israel’s efforts to deliver the vaccine, and some hope that its strategy will be emulated by Britain. 

“I welcome the involvement of the British army in our crucial national vaccination drive,” said Andrew Percy, a Tory MP and member of the parliamentary group Conservative Friends of Israel.

“As the world’s leader in Covid-19 vaccinations, Israel has shown how effective and important its military can be in helping to deliver for public health, given their expertise in logistics and in responding to health emergencies around the world.”