by UnHerd Staff at UnHerd
Professor Cyrille Cohen is head of Immunology at Bar Ilan University and a member of the advisory committee for vaccines for the Israeli Government. In a wide-ranging and forthright interview, the Professor tells Freddie Sayers:
- The Green Pass / vaccine passport concept is no longer relevant in the Omicron era and should be phased out (he expects it to be in short order in Israel)
- He and his colleagues were surprised and disappointed that the vaccines did not prevent transmission, as they had originally hoped
- The biggest mistake of the pandemic in Israel was closing schools and education
- Widespread infection is now an inevitable part of future immunity — otherwise known as herd immunity
- Omicron has accelerated the pandemic into the endemic phase, in which Covid will be “like flu”
KEY QUOTES
Especially with Omicron, where we don’t see virtually any difference, there is a very narrow gap between people vaccinated and non-vaccinated, both can get infected with a virus, more or less at the same pace.
– CYRILLE COHEN, UNHERDTV
On the behavioural science behind the Green Pass:
You have also to understand that the Green Pass is not necessarily — and that’s not a secret — it’s not necessarily to prevent transmission. It’s also to encourage people to get vaccinated. And I don’t want to touch upon the political aspects of the green pass. But this is a reality.
– CYRILLE COHEN, UNHERDTV…