Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla spoke in an interview with the Financial Times about the involvement of former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the deal to sell COVID-19 vaccines to Israel.

“The biggest thing that became clear was Bibi [Netanyahu] was on top of everything, he knew everything,” Bourla said. “He called me 30 times, asking: ‘What about young people . . . what are you doing about the South African variant?’ I’m sure he was doing it for his people, but I’m also sure he was thinking: ‘It could help me politically.’”

The interviewer suggested that turned out to be a miscalculation given that Netanyahu went on to lose power to which Bourla replied, “Maybe, but he did it very well.”

The Pfizer CEO explained that he decided on signing a deal with Israel first due to the fact that it has a small population with good data collection systems.

Greece was an option, said Bourla, but its electronic medical record-keeping was not up to scratch. He also considered Sweden, but was worried about upsetting other EU countries.

Source: Ido Ben Porat – Arutz Sheva