Israel, Denmark and Austria join forces against COVID-19

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel, Denmark and Austria agreed on Thursday to join forces in the fight against COVID-19 with an investment in research and roll-out of vaccines to protect people against new surges and mutations of the coronavirus.

The leaders of the three countries said their alliance will set up a foundation and vaccine distribution plants in Europe and Israel, based on Israel’s world-leading inoculation drive.

The effort is aimed at getting ahead of another expected surge of COVID-19 and the uncertainty of how long inoculations will remain effective. Details, such as costs and the time frame for opening the projects, were still being worked out, the leaders said.

“We think that by joining the resources of three small but very able and gifted countries, we can better meet these challenges,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. He added that other countries have also expressed interest in the effort.

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz added that “this pandemic can only be overcome through global cooperation."

That has been a delicate question as virus-fighting campaigns faced challenges in places like Europe and raised concerns that the pandemic would last longer in poorer countries that cannot afford vaccination campaigns.

Israel has inoculated more than half of its population in one of the world's most successful vaccination campaigns, though it has faced some criticism for not sending significant amounts of vaccines to the Palestinians.

That's expected to change next week with Israel providing vaccines to some 100,000 Palestinian laborers who work in Israel or its West Bank settlements. Still, the vast majority of the estimated 5 million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip will remain unvaccinated.

For Netanyahu, the alliance...