In a wide-ranging and forthright interview with Freddie Sayers, Professor Cyrille Cohen, head of Immunology at Bar Ilan University and a member of the advisory committee for vaccines for the Israeli Government said:
- The Green Pass / vaccine passport concept was no longer relevant in the Omicron era and should be
phased out (he expected 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 – he apologised for that
- 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”