Volunteer set to receive 1st Israeli vaccine candidate: ‘A historic opportunity’

The first volunteer due for injection with Israel’s coronavirus vaccine says he is feeling optimistic, and described his participation in the trial as “a historic opportunity.”

Clinical trials for the Brilife vaccine, developed by the Israel Institute for Biological Research, start Sunday at Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan and at Hadassah Medical Center in Jerusalem.

“I think everything will be ok, I’m even sure of it,” says Segev Harel, a 26-year-old undergraduate student from Kibbutz Sde Nehemia in northern Israel, introducing himself as the first Israeli due to receive a shot in a video released by Sheba Medical Center.

Segev Harel, set to receive the first shot of Israel’s vaccine candidate. (Sheba Medical Center)

Speaking in a video shot by a friend, he says he is healthy and feels confident about the test.

“A lot of people have been harmed by coronavirus, health-wise, psychologically and economically. And if the small contribution I can make is to participate in this trial and give hope that we’re on the way to end the plague, I’ll have played my part,” he says.

-Nathan Jeffay