RNAO CEO Dr. Doris Grinspun’s letter about the COVID-19 vaccine rollout appeared in the Toronto Sun (Feb. 12). For more on the province’s shortcomings as they relate to the rollout, read Conversations with members in this issue.

Glad to see Ontario’s COVID-19 science table is learning from Israel, the world’s leader on per capita vaccination. I know the Israeli health system as I practised there for a decade and also have most of my family there, all of whom are already vaccinated. There are three fundamental things we can learn from Israel’s vaccination success. First, the vaccination rollout is entirely delivered by nurses working in primary care, which is the anchoring sector of Israel’s four health-maintenance organizations (HMO). Second, Israel never relied on hospitals to store vaccines or to inoculate its citizens. Instead, they have zealously protected hospitals to care for the very sick. Third, Israel’s rollout in order of priority was all health-care workers, followed by nursing homes residents, and then everyone 60 and older. Ontario can get it right too, by moving away from hospital-delivered vaccinations to our community sector: Public health, primary care, home care, and pharmacies, deploying the thousands of nurses, physicians and pharmacists working in community care and relying on community-based tried and true distribution systems for vaccinations. It would accelerate a provincewide COVID-19 rollout plan 24-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week. We must follow Israel’s third and important lesson and vaccinate everyone over the age of 60 and fast, before the new variants claim their lives. Let’s get ready to roll up our sleeves and get the vaccine for the sooner the healthier we will all be.