Israel’s rapid vaccination effort provides important information about the COVID-19 vaccine from pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
Reporters with the news agency Reuters spoke to leading scientists in Israel and elsewhere, Israeli health officials, hospital heads and two of the country’s largest healthcare providers. The aim was to find the latest information on the country’s particularly rapid vaccination campaign.
About 3.5 million Israelis have been completely or partially vaccinated. This is more than half of the people in groups who are supposed to be vaccinated first. These groups show a sharp decrease in infections.
Eran Segal is a computer scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. He said there was a 53 percent reduction in new cases in the first group that was fully vaccinated. There were also 39 percent fewer hospitalizations and a 31 percent decrease in serious illness from mid-January to February 6, Segal said.
More information will be known in two weeks as teams study the effectiveness of the vaccine in younger groups of Israelis and people with certain conditions.
‘We must have enough variety people in that subgroup and enough follow-up time so you can make the right conclusions, and we are on point, ”said Ran Balicer. He is an official at the Israeli health provider Clalit.
Every week, Pfizer monitors the Israeli effort to learn more about the vaccine and how it works.
Israel’s campaign offers Pfizer and its partner, BioNTech, Germany, an extraordinary opportunity. The small country has health care for all its citizens and the ability to collect and study data. Israel also quickly supplied the vaccine to its citizens.
Israel is still struggling with its efforts to fight the virus. The country’s third citizen restriction did not delay the spread of COVID-19. A fast spread variant of the virus first found in Britain is now spreading in Israel. So far, the Pfizer / BioNTech shot seems to be effective against it.
‘We have so far identified the same effectiveness of 90 to 95 percent against the British pressure, ”Said Hezi Levi. He is a director general of the Israeli Ministry of Health.
The Pfizer vaccine requires two doses, or shots, to be effective. For this reason, Levi said it is too early to know about levels of protection, as many people have only received the second dose in the past week. He added that it was still too early to know whether the vaccine was effective against another rapidly spreading virus variant that had started in South Africa.
Good results so far
Israel began its vaccination program on December 19. He paid a high price for the vaccination of Pfizer / BioNTech.
Four days later, the rapidly spreading British variant was found in four people in Israel.
After that, Israel decided to start giving shots to people older than 60 years. Over time, it opened up the program to the rest of the population.
Information gathered by Israeli healthcare provider Maccabi shows that only six out of every 10,000 people are infected with COVID-19 one week after receiving their second dose of Pfizer. 22 days after complete vaccination, no infections were recorded.
Pfizer says the effectiveness of the vaccine begins one week after the second dose is given.
One important question is whether vaccines can end the pandemic. Michal Linial is a professor of molecular biology and bioinformatics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She said data from the past indicate that viruses are emerging endemic and seasonally.
She predicted that the coronavirus would become much less aggressive, and possibly require an extra shot within three years.
She added: “The virus is not going anywhere.”
I’m Mario Ritter Jr.
Maayan Lubell and Ari Rabinovitch reported this story to Reuters. Mario Ritter Jr. adapted it for VOA Learning English. Ashley Thompson was the editor.
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Words in this story
variety -A. a number or collection of different things or people
closure -A. a final opinion or verdict
pressure -A. a group of closely related living things
dosage -A. the amount of medicine or vaccine needed to cure or help a condition
contagious –Adj. can be transferred from one person or animal to another
endemic -A. common for a place
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