JERUSALEM – Israel, which is leading the world in vaccinating its population against the coronavirus, has provided encouraging news: early results show a significant decrease in infection after just one ingestion of a two-dose vaccine, and better-than-expected results after both doses .
Public health experts warn that the data, based on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, are preliminary and not subject to clinical trials. Nevertheless, Dr Anat Ekka Zohar, Vice President of Maccabi Health Services, one of the Israeli health maintenance organizations that released the data, called it “very encouraging”.
In the first early report, Clalit, Israel’s largest health fund, compared 200,000 people aged 60 and older who received a first dose of the vaccine to a corresponding group of 200,000 who had not yet been vaccinated. It said the partially vaccinated patients were 14 to 18 days after their shots 33 percent less infected.
Around the same time, Maccabi’s research arm said that after just one dose, they found a greater decrease in infections: a decrease of about 60 percent, 13 to 21 days after the first shot, in the first 430,000 people who received it. .
Maccabi did not specify an age group or compare the data with a corresponding, unvaccinated group.
On Monday, the Israeli Ministry of Health and Maccabi released new data on people receiving both doses of the vaccine, showing extremely high efficacy.
The ministry found that out of 428,000 Israelis who received their second doses, a week later only 63, or 0.014 percent, contracted the virus. Similarly, the Maccabi data showed that only 20 out of about 128,600 people, about 0.01 percent, contracted the virus after more than a week after receiving the second dose.
In clinical trials, the Pfizer vaccine was 95 percent effective after two doses to prevent coronavirus infection in humans without evidence of previous infection. The Israeli results, if they hold, suggest that the effectiveness may be even higher, although strict comparisons with unvaccinated people have not yet been published.
“This is very encouraging data,” said Dr. Zohar said. “We will closely monitor these patients to see if they are still only suffering from mild symptoms and not developing complications due to the virus.”
Both Clalit and Maccabi warned that their findings were preliminary and said they would soon be followed by more in-depth statistical analyzes in peer-reviewed scientific publications.
Israel, where more than 40 percent of the population has already received a first dose of the vaccine, has become an international test case for the effectiveness of vaccination.
With its small population, highly digitized universal health care system, and rapid deployment of military aid, Israel’s real data provides a useful complement to clinical trials for researchers, pharmaceutical companies, and policymakers.
Israel has entered into an agreement with Pfizer in which the drug company assures the country an early and steady supply of vaccines in exchange for data. The Ministry of Health has released an edited version of the agreement.
Despite the race to vaccinate, Israel is suffering from a devastating third wave of coronavirus. The government imposed a strict national exclusion this month after weeks of rising infections and deaths.
Israel would halt most air travel inside and outside the country by midnight on Monday, in an effort to stem the arrival of emerging virus variants that could threaten the country’s vaccination campaign. Two vaccine manufacturers said on Monday that their vaccines are slightly less effective against one of the new variants.
Although actual data such as that of Israel are useful, it is subject to variables that may skew the results and for which clinical trials try to account for.
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Answers to your vaccine questions
Although the exact order of vaccine recipients may vary by state, medical workers and residents of long-term care institutions are likely to be first. If you want to understand how this decision is made, this article will help.
Life will only become normal when society as a whole gets enough protection against the coronavirus. Once countries approve a vaccine, they will be able to vaccinate at most a few percent of their citizens in the first few months. The unvaccinated majority will still be vulnerable to infection. A growing number of coronavirus vaccines offer strong protection against disease. But it is also possible for people to spread the virus without even knowing they are infected, because they experience only mild symptoms or not at all. Scientists do not yet know whether the vaccination also blocks the transmission of the coronavirus. For now, even vaccinated people will have to wear masks, crowds inside, and so on. Must avoid. Once enough people are vaccinated, it will be very difficult for the coronavirus to find vulnerable people who can become infected. Depending on how quickly we as a society reach the goal, life may begin by the fall of 2021 to approach something as normal.
Yes, but not forever. The two vaccines that may be approved this month clearly protect people against Covid-19. However, the clinical trials that have yielded these results have not been designed to determine whether people who have been vaccinated can still spread the coronavirus without developing symptoms. It remains a possibility. We know that people who are naturally infected by the coronavirus can spread it while experiencing no cough or other symptoms. Researchers will study this question intensively as the vaccines begin. Meanwhile, even vaccinated people will have to think of themselves as possible distributors.
The Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine is delivered like a shot in the arm, like other typical vaccines. The injection will not be different from what you received before. Tens of thousands of people have already received the vaccinations, and none of them have reported serious health problems. But some of them felt transient discomfort, including pains and flu-like symptoms that usually last a day. It is possible that people after the second shot may be planning to take a day off from work or school. Although these experiences are not pleasant, it is a good sign: it is the result of your own immune system encountering the vaccine and getting a powerful response that will provide long-lasting immunity.
No. The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines use a genetic molecule to replenish the immune system. That molecule, known as mRNA, is eventually destroyed by the body. The mRNA is packaged in an oily bubble that can fuse with a cell so that the molecule can slide. The cell uses the mRNA to make proteins from the coronavirus, which can stimulate the immune system. Each of our cells can contain hundreds of thousands of mRNA molecules at any one time that they produce to make their own proteins. Once those proteins are made, our cells cut the mRNA with special enzymes. The mRNA molecules that make up our cells can only survive for a few minutes. The mRNA in vaccines is designed to resist the cells’ enzymes a little longer, allowing the cells to make extra viral proteins and trigger a stronger immune response. But the mRNA can only take a few days at most before being destroyed.
The early Israeli numbers are based on the first people to receive the vaccine. Such people are probably more concerned or informed about the virus, according to experts, and therefore more cautious about social removal and wearing masks. They may also differ from those who did not rush to get the chance according to location and socio-economic status.
According to experts, the disease also changes over time. Prof. Ran Balicer, head of innovation at Clalit and a leading Israeli epidemiologist, said that two-week-old data could be like evidence from another era or ‘about a million vaccines ago in Israeli terms’.
Maccabi said he would release more information weekly. “The main message,” Maccabi said in a statement, is that even the first dose of the vaccine is “effective and reduces the disease and reduces hospitalizations by as much as ten percent.”
A danger to the release of raw data has been warned, according to experts, that it could be misinterpreted.
After Clalit first released its earlier figures two weeks ago, many people heard of a 33 percent drop in cases, not the expected 95 percent, and came to the erroneous conclusion that the Pfizer shot does not work.
There was an uproar in Britain, where authorities delayed the administration of the second dose by up to 12 weeks, as opposed to the 21-day gap on which Pfizer based its trials.
Professor Balicer regarded the results as good news and was reports on their interpretation.
“We were reassured enough to tell everyone that immediately after Day 14 we saw what we needed to see,” he said. ‘I do not know how it became a message of’ Oh my God, it works. ‘
Professor Balicer, who is also chairing the team of experts advising the Israeli government on his Covid-19 response, hoped the positive results could have an impact on a looming government decision on a third exclusion.
“Covid has turned us all into amateur scientists,” said Talya Miron-Shatz, associate professor and expert medical decision-maker at Ono Academic College in central Israel. “We all look at data, but most people are not scientists.”
Israel, which began vaccinating people on December 20, gave more than 2.6 million Israelis the first time and both more than a million people.
After Israel started employing people aged 60 and over, health workers and others at high risk, Israel now offers vaccinations to people over 40 and to high school students aged 16 to 18 so they can go back to school. The military is helping the effort and 700 army reserves are helping out at vaccination centers.
Prof. Jonathan Halevy, president of the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, did not study the findings of the HMOs, but said that two weeks after the first dose was rolled out, he began to see a decrease in severe cases.
“I know several people who became infected near the time they got the vaccine, but they got it lightly,” he said.
Israel remains under national exclusion and officials are concerned about the emergence of new, highly contagious variants. It remains to be seen how effective the vaccines are against the new variants.
Despite what appears to be the early success of the vaccine, the virus continues to wreak havoc in Israel. Professor Halevy said his hospital’s Covid wards were still full and that he expected it to take another two or three weeks to recover.
The virus has killed more than 1,000 Israelis so far this month, nearly a quarter of those who generally died from the pandemic virus.
Health officials and experts attributed much to the recent increase in infection to the rapidly spreading variant first detected in Britain.