 So, we've got even more really encouraging news about the COVID-19 vaccine that I really want to talk about. Specifically, we're talking about the Pfizer and Biontech vaccine. When Pfizer released their Phase 3 clinical trial findings, they determined that their vaccine's efficacy rate was 95%. And that's really important. But we do want to see how the vaccine fares in the real world. So we need a real world study. And we have that now. Israel actually rolled out a highly effective mass vaccination campaign. And now they are providing us with a data that does in fact conclude that it is as effective as we had hoped. And that's important. However, when we're referring to Israel as a case study, it is important to look at the context. Because even though they've rolled out mass vaccinations and they're offering it to the general public, there's been a very deliberate exclusion of Palestinians. Their distribution has not been equitable. And that needs to be addressed. But first, I do want to talk about the good news. Because if we get everyone vaccinated, the pandemic will be over. It's as simple as that. So, as Arman Azad of CNN reports, Pfizer-Biontech's COVID-19 vaccine appears to reduce symptomatic coronavirus infections by more than 90% in the real world, Israeli researchers said Sunday. The findings, while preliminary, suggest that the vaccine remains remarkably effective in a mass vaccination campaign outside the carefully controlled conditions of a clinical trial. The Claylett Research Institute, part of a large Israeli health system, analyzed data on 1.2 million people, about half of whom had received the Pfizer-Biontech vaccine. Researchers compared patients who received the vaccine with similar individuals who hadn't. The rate of symptomatic COVID-19, meaning people who were infected with the coronavirus and felt sick, decreased by 94% among people who received two doses of the vaccine, according to a press release from Claylett. The rate of serious illness decreased by 92%. So obviously this is phenomenal news. The findings from this study are consistent with the findings from Pfizer's trial. Now this hasn't been peer reviewed yet, but this is extremely, extremely encouraging. Now I think it's a little bit difficult to like visualize how effective it is, just looking at these percentages, but let's look at it in terms of just like raw numbers. So of the 1.2 million people included in this study, half of them were vaccinated. So about 500,000, more than 500,000. Of those 500,000 individuals, just 500, just over 500 in fact, give or take, were infected with COVID-19 out of 500,000, just 500 got COVID-19. And of those 500 cases, just four were serious. And out of all of the folks who were vaccinated, none of them died due to COVID-19. This is really great news. And health experts in Israel are actually now estimating that the UK variant is the dominant strain in Israel. And so the fact that the vaccine is still very effective, that's really, really encouraging news obviously. Now we still don't necessarily know the efficacy rate when it comes to the South African variant. As far as we know, based on preliminary data, the vaccine isn't as effective against the South African variant, although it still is effective. So we just, we don't have enough information yet to make any conclusions. And when I say we, I mean the experts, and I'm just going to disseminate the information and the results that they produce, but this is very encouraging. And the next step after the vaccine is actually rolled out to the general population is to make sure that people actually want to get vaccinated. Now, vaccine hesitancy has been gradually decreasing, but if we want to truly reach herd immunity and make everything go back to normal, we've got to get people vaccinated. I think that what's going to help is people seeing their peers get vaccinated. Once people see that their friend or family member was vaccinated, I think that their skepticism is going to go down. And we're to the point now where a lot of us already know people who have been vaccinated. I know folks who have been vaccinated. And I think that that has helped reduce the hesitancy that I've seen with people who I know. So look, it's going to be a work in progress. But when we're talking about the case study in Israel, I think context is really important because even if they've rolled out this mass vaccination campaign, they have excluded Palestinians largely from this study. So Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, they're also dealing with COVID-19 and the more contagious UK variant. And Israel has excluded them from vaccinations. So as Natasha Turek of CNBC reports, Israel's decision to give 5,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine to Palestinian frontline health workers is being criticized by Palestinians and rights groups as insufficient and falling short of the country's obligations. Israel's provision of 5,000 vaccine doses to Palestinian health workers pales in comparison to the nearly 5 million doses it has already provided to Israeli citizens. Omar Shakir, the Israel and Palestine Director for Human Rights Watch, told CNBC following the announcement, the Palestinian territories are home to just over 5 million people. Noor Khattab, an assistant professor and COVID-19 data researcher at the Arab American University in the West Bank City of Ramallah, is concerned about the situation. Things are worrying. We do have cases, cases we don't know about. The hospitals are already packed with patients and the UK variant is now in Palestine. Khattab told CNBC, referring to a new strain of the coronavirus first identified in the UK and found to be 70% more transmissible. The new virus variant now present in the Palestinian territories is truly worrying because that means more cases. And we still don't have the vaccine in the West Bank, she said. Khattab spoke to CNBC before the Israeli announcement Sunday. But as the delivery of the 5,000 vaccine doses is only meant for Palestinian frontline workers, it won't do much to change the infection situation for the general population. The latest data from the World Health Organization shows 178,900 confirmed coronavirus cases among Palestinians in the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, with more than 2,000 deaths. So on one hand, Israel deserves credit for successfully rolling out a mass vaccination campaign. However, they also deserve to be lambasted for these discrepancies in who is getting vaccinated. Now, if nothing changes, the Palestinian Authority themselves, they have procured a large shipment of vaccines that is due in March. But the fact that they've been excluded from this process is absolutely morally reprehensible. I mean, what do you say about this? It's genocidal, to say the least. If you have access to a life-saving vaccine, but you deliberately exclude certain individuals from getting said vaccine, I mean, I don't know what else to call that. It is absolutely genocidal. But I mean, Israel, their government has been repressing Palestinian rights and cracking down on Palestinian freedoms. They're literally second-class citizens in Israel. And it's just, it's disturbing. So on one hand, I do want to take the study that was produced from Israel and use that to further inform people about the COVID-19 vaccine. I think that other countries should look to Israel as an example of a success story at getting these vaccines out quick. However, we also have to look at the human rights issue here, how disgusting it is that Palestinians are being excluded here. And up until recently, nobody, including Palestinian frontline healthcare workers, were getting vaccinated. So it is disturbing. Now part of the reason why I think that Israel was able to get out so many vaccines is because they forged a deal with Pfizer to give them access to the data of their vaccinated citizens. If there's any like logistical things that they're able to do differently, then I think we have to look at that. However, I think that now the main issue is just production, right? They have a smaller population. So when you compare them with the United States, it is a lot more difficult to vaccinate our 350 million people in this country. Having said that though, like the pace that we are vaccinating people is encouraging. Joe Biden said 100 million vaccinations in the first 100 days and he is on track to surpass that, which he gets credit for. Having said that though, we have to make sure that when we deliver the vaccine to people, that distribution is equitable. We're not leaving people out, leaving out specifically like marginalized communities and communities of people who have been historically disenfranchised and oppressed. So I think that this is something that we have to keep in mind as we look to the future, because if we want to truly move beyond this pandemic, everyone has to be vaccinated. But it's just sad that the way that is being rolled out, you know, you can tell that government's value certain lives more than others and that is really, really just, it's disturbing to say the least.