An Israeli scientist works at a laboratory at the MIGAL Research Institute in Kiryat Shmona in the upper Galilee in northern Israel on February 27, 2020 Image by JALAA MAREY/AFP via Getty Images

By Molly Boigon March 23, 2020

Despite rumors swirling online to the contrary, Israel has not developed and tested a vaccine for coronavirus.

The rumor appears to have started with a Facebook post that read, “A vaccine for CoronaVirus has just been approved in Israel. It is being produced in hundreds of thousands as we speak and expected to be in the US within 14 days!” Israel’s reputation as the “Start-Up Nation,” a tech, biotech and engineering juggernaut, made the rumor seem more credible.

Is there really a vaccine from Israel for Covid-19? @NCDCgov is this fake news? I am asking cos the news is spreading. https://t.co/e1WGWAX4Yv

Forwarding the News

Thoughtful, balanced reporting from the Forward and around the web, bringing you updated news and analysis each day.

Terms(Required)

I agree to the Forward's Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Email(Required)

— Dash™? (@Mhazi_Dash) March 23, 2020

I hope that this news from #Israel proves correct. If their #coronavirus #vaccine proves effective those who the #boycott & #divest from Israel should put their mouth where their money is & not to use the vaccine. #bds https://t.co/wFld9vYFr3

— joshua rosner (@JoshRosner) March 23, 2020

In fact, Haaretz reports that Israel’s Institute for Biological Research is expected to announce the development of a vaccine, but clinical trials and other experiments may take months before the vaccine is made available to the public.

Similarly, MIGAL Galilee Research Institute, which is state-funded, is adapting an bronchial virus vaccine to function as a COVID-19 vaccine.

One former Health Ministry official told the Times of Israel that it could be 18 months before a vaccine is ready.

Molly Boigon is an investigative reporter at the Forward. Contact her at [email protected] or follow her on Twitter @MollyBoigon

The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.

Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

$90 $180

$360

Other amount