VOA CORRECTS MISLEADING FIGURES ON ISRAELI ARAB VACCINATION RATE
CAMERA .Org 02.09.2021
CAMERA’s Israel office today prompted a Voice of America correction of misleading statistics concerning the covid-19 vaccination rate among Israel’s Arab citizens. A blurb accompanying the Aug. 28 video entitled “Israeli vaccine disparity” confounded, falsely suggesting the population is far less vaccinated than it is:
As Israel expands its third COVID booster shot campaign, analysts are pointing to wide disparities between Jews and Arabs when it comes to getting vaccinations. While 80 percent of eligible Jewish Israelis have been vaccinated, about one-third of Arab citizens of Israel have yet to get their shots. As Linda Gradstein reports from Jerusalem, some root causes are poverty and distrust. (Emphasis added.)
Note the comparison of eligible Jewish Israelis who have been vaccinated (citing 80 percent) versus the number of eligible Arab Israelis who have not been vaccinated (citing one-third). Casual readers are liable to easily take away the mistaken understanding that only one-third of eligible Israeli Arabs are vaccinated.
Clear, straight-forward reporting compares equivalent figures; that is, the number of eligible Jewish Israelis who have been vaccinated and the number of eligible Arab Israelis who have been vaccinated (71 percent as of Aug. 10, and presumably higher than that by Aug. 28). While a figure for vaccination rates for eligible Jewish Israelis was not readily available, the rate for Israel’s eligible general population is reportedly 78 percent (as of Aug. 16).
While the Arab population lags behind the general population and has the lowest rate among all Israeli populations — though the characterization of the discrepancy as a “wide” disparity is debatable — the disparities are between socioeconomic classes, with the relatively less affluent ultra-Orthodox also lagging.
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