Israel solemnizes second ‘National Defibrillator Awareness Day’
Israel Tuesday committed its National Defibrillator Awareness Day for the second consecutive year. Observances included a nationwide effort to prepare citizens to use defibrillators in case of a cardiac event.
The initiative was started last year by Magen David Adom (MADA), Israel’s emergency medical service, just as the Health Ministry was rolling out COVID shots for Israeli teenagers.
MADA coordinated defibrillator trainings Tuesday with local governments across the country in cities like Tel Aviv and Kfar Sava. The Knesset underwent its own training session, guided by MADA, and included National Defense Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, Knesset Speaker Amir Ohana, and MKs Benny Gantz, Orna Barbibai, Merav Michaeli, Merav Ben Ari, Uriel Bosso and others.
National Defibrillator Awareness day comes just over two years after Israel brought COVID-19 vaccines and their mandates to the rest of the world. Israel’s government was the first to sign a contract with Pfizer in 2020 for eight million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine which it then used to experiment on its population, proudly calling itself “a lab for Pfizer” and “a large world testing laboratory”.
Harsh vaccine mandates followed and, within six months after the vaccine was introduced, Israel saw a 25% increase in cardiac events among young people directly correlated to the injections.
The Health Ministry, however, manipulated and concealed vaccine injury data, aggressively campaigned against those who questioned the safety of the shots, and until today continues to deny any connection between the shots and cardiac events.
Nevertheless, in January 2022 Israel's Education Ministry issued regulations establishing a legal obligation to have a first aid kit and install defibrillators in all educational institutions — schools and kindergartens — with over 500 pupils.
The regulations, which were in fact set three years earlier and since accumulated dust, were published in parallel with the Health Ministry's preparations for vaccinating children, just as the Ministry began vaccinating teenagers aged 16-18 in Israel.
According to the regulations, entitled First aid study regulations and possession of resuscitation devices and first aid kits in schools, 5741-20, every school with over 500 pupils must have at least one resuscitation device.
The regulations went into effect in April 2021, in preparation for vaccinating children ages 12-15, just weeks before the FDA granted Pfizer an emergency use authorization for this age group.