The first vaccinations against Covid-19 in Israel were easy. Now comes the hard part.

“I’m healthy, my body can overcome it,” said Tamir Hefetz, 46, one of the organizers of the anti-vaccine demonstration. “The green passport is something terrible.”

In the later stages of its vaccination campaign, Israel is trying to persuade resistance fighters to get vaccinated before new variants of the coronavirus increase infection levels again, causing further damage to the country’s economy.

But the hardened pockets of resistance facing the Israeli government point to the struggles that await many Western countries, including the United States, once they inoculate large chunks of their populations.

“The further you go, the harder it gets,” Israeli Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said in an interview. “It’s just like running a marathon.”

With more than 55% of its population receiving at least one vaccine – and over 46% with two – Israel’s vaccination campaign has reached a critical stage. After peaking at over 230,000 shots per day in mid-January, vaccine deployment has slowed in recent weeks to around 100,000 per day.

Experts warn that if Israel is to achieve a certain level of immunity and detection that will allow it to emerge from repeated cycles of economic openings and lockdowns, that pace must accelerate.

Gili Regev, director of the epidemiology division at Sheba Medical Center, said Israel will not achieve herd immunity with the British variant until 80% of the population is vaccinated, which is currently not possible as long as 80% of the population is not vaccinated. that children under 16 cannot be vaccinated. Before that, she said, only inoculating as many people over 16 as possible will improve the outlook.

“The more people who get vaccinated, the safer it is for everyone,” she said.

Dr Regev estimates that only about 4% of Israelis who are offered a vaccine refuse it, but there are many more who have not bothered to be vaccinated, despite the establishment of sites mobile inoculation and public awareness campaigns by individual cities. The Israeli government has also developed an elaborate incentive system, based on green passports, which allows vaccinated people to access fitness, dining and entertainment options mostly closed during successive lockdowns and which are still largely closed to the unvaccinated.

Since the start of the vaccination campaign, Israeli health-maintenance organizations have targeted all eligible people with text messages, phone calls and emails to lure them to vaccination sites.

Such calls always fall on deaf ears for people like Katy Drabkin from Holon, a city south of Tel Aviv. She recently rode a bicycle to a vaccination center in the city and then urged several people online not to get the vaccine. She doesn’t trust mainstream media information about vaccines and doesn’t want to be discriminated against for refusing a vaccine.

“What is happening now is that our media belong to the establishment, which belongs to those with a vested interest,” she said. “So now they’re just convincing everyone that there is a dangerous pandemic.”

Shiri, 45, who attended the anti-vaccine demonstration in Tel Aviv but declined to give her last name because she feared repercussions for her business, also doubts a shot is worth it. She brought her husband and three children to distribute the anti-vaccine stickers to passers-by.

“I’m not sure it’s safe or effective,” she said, referring to the vaccine.

Israel initially performed well during the first wave of the pandemic, but experienced a crippling second wave after reopening too quickly over the summer, forcing a second lockdown. The country closed its doors again in December after the spread of the most contagious UK variant of the virus caused a third wave which was the worst of all. So far, more than 6,000 people have died from Covid-19, and the closures have cost the Israeli economy billions of dollars.

The pro-vaccine campaign is sweeping away some resistance fighters. Amos Yekutiel from Jerusalem said he did not intend to be vaccinated, but did so after passing a vaccination site that had been set up in a neighborhood bar. His friends warning him that he couldn’t visit him until he was vaccinated, pushed the 36-year-old consultant through the door.

“I’m not a conspiracy theorist, I just didn’t think I needed it myself,” he said. Now that he’s changed his mind, he’s excited to go to a restaurant and attend a group dinner. “It gives you more freedom.”

To further influence skeptics, Israel’s health ministry is also targeting misinformation about vaccines, mostly disseminated on social media. Health officials are working with Israel’s Justice Ministry to suppress false information about vaccines and are also releasing information to debunk vaccine myths.

In Jerusalem, two religious students said that although many of their friends had urged them not to get the vaccine, they eventually continued after asking doctors and volunteer doctors about its operation and after consulting their parents. .

“[At first] we looked at each other and said ‘of course not,’ said Yaakov Silverman, 21, who was having ice cream when a volunteer found him and his friend and suggested he get the shot in a nearby bar. “But we asked a few questions… and we discussed it and we thought, ‘Why don’t we just do it?’”

—Dov Lieber in Tel Aviv contributed to this article.