Vaccines are quickly preventing serious cases of COVID-19 among the most vulnerable members of society, an Israeli health provider said.
The full effects of the Pfizer vaccine are scheduled to begin about a month after the first injection, but data from Israel, home to the world’s fastest vaccination campaign, has already shown that there is a sharp drop in infections even before this point.
Attracting widespread international interest in sharing initial data, Maccabi Healthcare Services reported earlier this month that it observed a 60% reduction in coronavirus infections three weeks after the first injection was administered.
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But it was not clear whether the benefits were being felt equally by those prone to mild infections and those likely to take COVID-19 badly.
An Israeli man receives a coronavirus vaccine at a Clalit vaccination center in Jerusalem on January 4, 2021. (Olivier Fitoussi / Flash90)
Maccabi is now beginning to answer the question that hospitals and health ministers around the world are anxiously asking amid fears of health service breakdowns: How quickly will COVID-19 districts begin to see the benefits of vaccination ?
The reduction in hospital admissions is rapid after vaccination, suggests Maccabi in his most recent data, finding that hospitalizations begin to drop dramatically from day 18 after people receive their first injection. Galia Rahav, head of infectious diseases at Israel’s largest hospital, Sheba Medical Center, described the data as “very important”.
On day 23, which is 2 days after the second injection, there is a 60% drop in hospitalizations among people vaccinated over 60, Maccabi revealed after monitoring 50,777 patients. He compared the hospitalization rate at that point with the hospitalization rate shortly after receiving the vaccine, using 7-day moving averages.
Prof. Israeli Galia Rahav in Tel Aviv on June 22, 2020. (Yossi Aloni / Flash90)
“These data are very important,” Rahav, who has no connection to the study, told The Times of Israel. “It has an impact because in the midst of high rates of infection and the spread of variants, it is difficult to see in general numbers how vaccination is influencing things.
“By providing insight into hospitalizations only among the elderly who have been vaccinated, these data are valuable.”
However, she warned that part of the fall may be due to a tendency for newly vaccinated people to adhere to the blocking rules, which causes a drop in infection and hospitalization.
The new data also supports Maccabi’s previous claim of a 60% drop in the infection rate after three weeks, reporting that it saw the same drop with a new sample comprising only the age group over 60.
The Maccabi chart gives a real picture of the infection in Israel, showing that until the 13th, people over the age of 60 vaccinated had infection rates similar to those of the population over 60. Then, a gap opens and, on the 23rd, there were 18 daily infections among 50,777 in total, but only six among those vaccinated.