TEL AVIV (Reuters) – Israel has led the world in COVID-19 vaccinations. Now it faces another challenge that other countries will have to grapple with: how to balance public health and the rights of the unvaccinated.
Its decisions will affect every walk of life – from schools to work, and culture to worship.
Half of Israelis have received their first shot, and the country began reopening its economy this week after a year of lockdowns and remote working.
But several activities have been deemed off-limits to the unvaccinated, angering those who cannot get the jab for health reasons, or refuse it as a matter of principle.
Some employers already plan to ban unvaccinated workers from the office, which rights groups fear could cost them their jobs. Unions have suggested workarounds, such as COVID-19 tests every 72 hours.
“I’m already at peace with the fact that I won’t be invited to certain events or allowed into areas of entertainment,” said Hila Bar, a business owner who is sceptical of medical science and does not plan to get vaccinated.
“So I won’t go,” she said. “And I won’t patronise certain businesses either – not because I don’t want to, but they do not want my business.”
Israel, where the vaccine rollout is fast but not mandatory, is a world leader in inoculations. Other countries are likely to scrutinise its early experience to see how it addresses mostly unanswered questions about balancing individual rights with obligations to public health.
“Whoever does not get vaccinated will be left behind,” Health Minister Yuli Edelstein warned in recent weeks.
Edelstein has made clear that newly introduced perks for the vaccinated – including access to theatres, gyms, and resort areas along the Dead Sea – are incentives to get inoculated.
But some advocates and employers are concerned that parliament has not passed any new laws regulating workers’ return to offices or offering protections for the unvaccinated, saying it will force employers to devise their own rules.
Early discussions around guidelines and legislation point to employers, authorities and courts putting public health concerns before individuals’ demands.
Intel’s Mobileye unit, in Jerusalem, says unvaccinated workers will not be allowed to come to the office as of April 4, but can work from home if their assignment allows.
The company estimates around 10% of its 1,500 employees will not get vaccinated. If they must come to the office, they will need to provide a negative PCR test taken within the prior 48 hours.
“It is our responsibility to make our offices a safe place – the greater good of our employees and their families trumps any other consideration,” Chief Executive Amnon Shashua wrote to employees in an email seen by Reuters.
CIVIL RIGHTS
A landmark study released on Wednesday showed the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine being used in Israel cut symptomatic cases among Israeli recipients by 94%.
But some officials privately estimate that 10% of Israelis over 16 – around 650,000 people – do not intend to get vaccinated.
Even asking employees to share their vaccine status could violate medical privacy rights, some advocates say, with potential ramifications for civil liberties that may eventually be challenged in Israeli courts.
“The question is how do we reopen the market, the economy, and life, without harming people that cannot or would not get vaccinated,” said Sharon Abraham-Weiss, executive director of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (ACRI).
“It’s the vulnerable people, those that are not unionised, or temp (workers) or others who would bear the burden,” she said, while calling for legislation.
Business leaders have also called for new laws. The health ministry did not comment when asked if legislation offering job protection to the unvaccinated was being drawn up.
Some large trade groups have begun drafting policy guidelines for members, including the Manufacturers Association of Israel, which represents 1,800 companies employing almost half a million workers.
The group’s members are “not chasing people in the street to stick some syringes in their shoulders and force them to vaccinate,” though they are doing everything they can to encourage it, the group’s president, Ron Tomer, said.
But according to a legal opinion commissioned by the group and reviewed by Reuters, members may ask employees if they were vaccinated as a “safety measure” to prevent infecting others rather than as a request for personal medical information.
Employers should take reasonable steps to allow unvaccinated staff to work from home or in separate bubbles, but those who cannot do so can be sent on unpaid leave, or, as a last resort, fired, the opinion says.
“If you don’t want to take the injection, it’s OK … the employee (has a right) to protect his privacy. But on the other side there are rights of the public, the employers, the clients – the people that we give services (to),” the opinion’s author, prominent employment attorney Nachum Feinberg, told Reuters.
Offering a potential workaround, Israel’s largest labour union, Histadrut, suggested that unvaccinated workers who cannot work at home present negative coronavirus tests to their employers every 72 hours.
‘MATTER OF PUBLIC HEALTH’
Israel on Sunday launched a “Green Pass” system granting certain privileges to citizens who have had both doses of the vaccine or have recovered from COVID-19.
In one of its first real-life applications, only those carrying a government-validated certificate were allowed to attend a small open-air concert in Tel Aviv this week.
And parliament on Wednesday passed a law allowing the health ministry to give municipalities the names of residents who have not had a shot.
ACRI has opposed the legislation, arguing it violates privacy rights.
The law faculty at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem argued in a position paper that regulating vaccination “is a matter of public health, and not a private medical issue”.
Existing Israeli laws grant the health ministry the legal authority to impose restrictions on the unvaccinated, and even to obligate vaccination in certain cases, the position paper says.
“Those who fulfil their obligation to vaccinate should not be asked to bear the cost of others choosing not to,” said David Enoch, a professor in the philosophy of law at Hebrew University.
(Reporting by Rami Ayyub and Steven Scheer; Editing by Mike Collett-White)
OTTAWA – Canada’s unemployment rate held steady at 6.5 per cent last month as hiring remained weak across the economy.
Statistics Canada’s labour force survey on Friday said employment rose by a modest 15,000 jobs in October.
Business, building and support services saw the largest gain in employment.
Meanwhile, finance, insurance, real estate, rental and leasing experienced the largest decline.
Many economists see weakness in the job market continuing in the short term, before the Bank of Canada’s interest rate cuts spark a rebound in economic growth next year.
Despite ongoing softness in the labour market, however, strong wage growth has raged on in Canada. Average hourly wages in October grew 4.9 per cent from a year ago, reaching $35.76.
Friday’s report also shed some light on the financial health of households.
According to the agency, 28.8 per cent of Canadians aged 15 or older were living in a household that had difficulty meeting financial needs – like food and housing – in the previous four weeks.
That was down from 33.1 per cent in October 2023 and 35.5 per cent in October 2022, but still above the 20.4 per cent figure recorded in October 2020.
People living in a rented home were more likely to report difficulty meeting financial needs, with nearly four in 10 reporting that was the case.
That compares with just under a quarter of those living in an owned home by a household member.
Immigrants were also more likely to report facing financial strain last month, with about four out of 10 immigrants who landed in the last year doing so.
That compares with about three in 10 more established immigrants and one in four of people born in Canada.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
The Canadian Institute for Health Information says health-care spending in Canada is projected to reach a new high in 2024.
The annual report released Thursday says total health spending is expected to hit $372 billion, or $9,054 per Canadian.
CIHI’s national analysis predicts expenditures will rise by 5.7 per cent in 2024, compared to 4.5 per cent in 2023 and 1.7 per cent in 2022.
This year’s health spending is estimated to represent 12.4 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product. Excluding two years of the pandemic, it would be the highest ratio in the country’s history.
While it’s not unusual for health expenditures to outpace economic growth, the report says this could be the case for the next several years due to Canada’s growing population and its aging demographic.
Canada’s per capita spending on health care in 2022 was among the highest in the world, but still less than countries such as the United States and Sweden.
The report notes that the Canadian dental and pharmacare plans could push health-care spending even further as more people who previously couldn’t afford these services start using them.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
Canadian Press health coverage receives support through a partnership with the Canadian Medical Association. CP is solely responsible for this content.
As Canadians wake up to news that Donald Trump will return to the White House, the president-elect’s protectionist stance is casting a spotlight on what effect his second term will have on Canada-U.S. economic ties.
Some Canadian business leaders have expressed worry over Trump’s promise to introduce a universal 10 per cent tariff on all American imports.
A Canadian Chamber of Commerce report released last month suggested those tariffs would shrink the Canadian economy, resulting in around $30 billion per year in economic costs.
More than 77 per cent of Canadian exports go to the U.S.
Canada’s manufacturing sector faces the biggest risk should Trump push forward on imposing broad tariffs, said Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters president and CEO Dennis Darby. He said the sector is the “most trade-exposed” within Canada.
“It’s in the U.S.’s best interest, it’s in our best interest, but most importantly for consumers across North America, that we’re able to trade goods, materials, ingredients, as we have under the trade agreements,” Darby said in an interview.
“It’s a more complex or complicated outcome than it would have been with the Democrats, but we’ve had to deal with this before and we’re going to do our best to deal with it again.”
American economists have also warned Trump’s plan could cause inflation and possibly a recession, which could have ripple effects in Canada.
It’s consumers who will ultimately feel the burden of any inflationary effect caused by broad tariffs, said Darby.
“A tariff tends to raise costs, and it ultimately raises prices, so that’s something that we have to be prepared for,” he said.
“It could tilt production mandates. A tariff makes goods more expensive, but on the same token, it also will make inputs for the U.S. more expensive.”
A report last month by TD economist Marc Ercolao said research shows a full-scale implementation of Trump’s tariff plan could lead to a near-five per cent reduction in Canadian export volumes to the U.S. by early-2027, relative to current baseline forecasts.
Retaliation by Canada would also increase costs for domestic producers, and push import volumes lower in the process.
“Slowing import activity mitigates some of the negative net trade impact on total GDP enough to avoid a technical recession, but still produces a period of extended stagnation through 2025 and 2026,” Ercolao said.
Since the Canada-United States-Mexico Agreement came into effect in 2020, trade between Canada and the U.S. has surged by 46 per cent, according to the Toronto Region Board of Trade.
With that deal is up for review in 2026, Canadian Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Candace Laing said the Canadian government “must collaborate effectively with the Trump administration to preserve and strengthen our bilateral economic partnership.”
“With an impressive $3.6 billion in daily trade, Canada and the United States are each other’s closest international partners. The secure and efficient flow of goods and people across our border … remains essential for the economies of both countries,” she said in a statement.
“By resisting tariffs and trade barriers that will only raise prices and hurt consumers in both countries, Canada and the United States can strengthen resilient cross-border supply chains that enhance our shared economic security.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
