Court Orders Israeli Authorities to Provide Vaccination Status of People Who Died During Pandemic

David Shuldman (R) and Avital Livny, creator of the testimonies project, at the Jerusalem District Court, Jerusalem, Israel, on Sept. 29, 2022. Courtesy of Avital Livny

HAIFA, Israel—Following a Freedom of Information (FOI) request from an Israeli citizen, the Jerusalem District Court has ordered the Ministry of Health to provide information on the vaccination status of deceased people and other information.

The Ministry of Health (MoH) has until mid-November to provide:

• total mortality, for any reason, including COVID-19, noting the vaccination status of the deceased, the vaccine doses, and recoveries
• data about child mortality from COVID-19, noting whether the deceased did or did not have comorbidities
• COVID-19 mortality with the data segmented by comorbidities and according to vaccination status

The order came after David Shuldman, a systems analyst and an economist, filed an FOI request in 2021 for mortality data broken down by vaccination status. He also asked that deaths among people who recovered from COVID-19 be noted.