Israel study touts Pfizer jab's effectiveness as country fights Covid disinformation

The reluctance of some groups in the population to get vaccinated is a key reason why infection rates remain high.

In the case of the ultra-Orthodox, some influential religious leaders have called on their followers not be immunised.

Meanwhile, Israel's Arab minority tends to suffer from a lack of trust in the Jewish leadership. And younger Israelis often think they can't get seriously ill.

Rabbi Yuval Hacohen Asherov, a popular Jewish preacher with an online following who has stated that germs do not cause diseases, has posted numerous anti-vaccine videos with hundreds of thousands of views. A recent video falsely claimed the Covid-19 vaccine caused death.