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Netanyahu opens TikTok account, promotes COVID-19 vaccine

The Israeli prime minister uses the social-media platform to urge the public to follow his lead as the first in the country to receive the shot.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conference at the Health Ministry in Jerusalem on Dec. 9, 2020. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holds a press conference at the Health Ministry in Jerusalem on Dec. 9, 2020. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90.

Moments after being the first Israeli to be inoculated against COVID-19 on Saturday night, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined TikTok by posting his first video outside the Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv where he received the vaccine.

“While I was getting vaccinated, you opened a TikTok account for me?” he asked his aides. He then urged the public not to let that platform be a replacement for reading books.

“Go get vaccinated,” the prime minister added, reiterating what he had said earlier, right after receiving the shot.

Jokes have been circulating on the Internet about possible side effects from the vaccination, such as the growing of a tail. Netanyahu referred to the memes by quipping that he hadn’t grown a tail since receiving the injection on live TV.

This article first appeared in Israel Hayom.

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