What exactly is the Ministry of Health sharing with Pfizer?

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

Last month, Israel established itself as a vaccination powerhouse. Subsequently, the government was able to persuade Pfizer to dramatically increase the supply of doses of the coronavirus vaccine compared to what it had originally agreed to, in exchange for medical data. Some, however, expressed fears that extra doses would harm citizens’ privacy.

However, although parts of the contract have been deleted, the document clearly states that “no identifiable health information should be shared between the parties”

According to the document, the Ministry of Health undertakes to report to Pfizer the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19, hospitalizations, severe / critical cases, ventilated patients and symptomatic cases per week, together with the number of vaccinations performed. In both cases, the data will also be disaggregated according to demographic factors, such as age groups.

Much of this information is already shared publicly by the ministry on a daily basis.

About two million Israelis have already received at least their first injection, making the country the best in the world in terms of vaccination per capita and placing it in a unique position to serve as a “test state”, with the ability to provide important information for the rest of the world.

As established in the agreement, the objective of the cooperation is “to measure and analyze epidemiological data [Pfizer] Product launch, to determine if herd immunity is achieved after reaching a certain percentage of vaccination coverage in Israel. “

Although no specific number of doses is included in the document – at least in the visible parts – Pfizer is committed to providing sufficient vaccines to achieve herd immunity as quickly as possible.

According to what was reported by the Israeli media last week, the company is expected to deliver between 400,000 and 700,000 doses per week.

The agreement further states: “The data generated by the Project is intended to help end the global pandemic COVID-19 for the benefit of all patients inside and outside Israel” and that “will be based on current medical literature and guidelines adopted inspected medical organs. “

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

Pfizer will share with the Ministry of Health its experience in areas such as respiratory diseases, vaccines and epidemiology. The two bodies will also submit joint reports for publication in peer-reviewed scientific journals.

On Friday, the Ministry of Health announced that the general population over 45 can now be vaccinated.