What exactly does the Ministry of Health share with Pfizer?

The agreement between Israel and the pharmaceutical company Pfizer was published by the Ministry of Health on Sunday.

In the past month, Israel has established itself as a vaccination power station. The government subsequently succeeded in persuading Pfizer to drastically increase the supply of coronavirus vaccine doses compared to what they had originally agreed, in exchange for medical data. Some, however, have expressed fears that the extra doses would go at the expense of citizens’ privacy.

However, while some parts of the agreement have been blacked out, the document clearly states that ‘no identifiable health information will be shared between the parties.’

According to the document, the Ministry of Health is committed to communicating to Pfizer the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, serious / critical cases, ventilated patients and symptomatic cases per week, along with the number of vaccinations performed. In both cases, the data will also be set out according to demographic factors, such as age groups.

Much of this information is already shared daily by the ministry.

About two million Israelis have already received their first shot, making the country by far the best in the world in terms of vaccination per capita and putting it in the unique position of serving as a ‘test state’, with the ability to provide important information to the rest of the world.

As set out in the agreement, the aim of the collaboration is to “obtain epidemiological data arising from the [Pfizer] Product deployment to determine whether herd immunity is achieved after a certain percentage of vaccination has been achieved in Israel. ”

Although no specific number of doses has been included in the document – at least in the visible parts – Pfizer is committed to delivering enough vaccines to bring about herd immunity as quickly as possible.

According to Israeli media reports last week, the company will provide between 400,000 and 700,000 doses each week.

The agreement further states: ‘The data generated by the project is aimed at ending the global COVID-19 pandemic for the benefit of all patients inside and outside Israel’ and that it ‘will be based on the current medical literature and guidelines adopted by inspected medical bodies. ”

In addition, no information may be disclosed to third parties under the agreement unless specifically approved by the disclosing party. The ministry will remain the owner of the data shared with Pfizer.

Pfizer will share its expertise in the field of respiratory diseases, vaccinations and epidemiology with the Ministry of Health. The two institutions will also jointly report to the peer-reviewed scientific journals.

On Friday, the Ministry of Health announced that the general population over 45 is now eligible.