Israel’s rapid vaccination effort is providing important information about the pharmaceutical company Pfizer vaccine COVID-19.
Reporters at the Reuters news agency spoke to leading scientists in Israel and elsewhere, Israeli health officials, heads of hospitals and two of the country’s largest health providers. The aim was to find the latest information on the country’s particularly rapid vaccination campaign.
About 3.5 million Israelis have been vaccinated in whole or in part. This is more than half of the people who are in groups that should be vaccinated first. These groups are experiencing a sharp drop in infections.
Eran Segal is a data scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. He said there was a 53 percent reduction in new cases in the first fully vaccinated group. In addition, there were 39% fewer hospitalizations and a 31% drop in serious illnesses from mid-January to 6 February, said Segal.
More information will be known in two weeks, as the teams study the vaccine’s effectiveness in younger groups of Israelis and people with certain conditions.
“We need to have enough variety of people in that subgroup and enough follow-up time for you to take the right action conclusions, and we’re getting to that point, ”said Ran Balicer. He is an employee of the Israeli health care provider Clalit.
Pfizer is watching the Israeli effort every week to understand more about the vaccine and how it is working.
The Israel campaign offers Pfizer and its partner, the German BioNTech, an unusual chance. The small country has health for all its citizens and the ability to collect and study data. Israel also quickly provided the vaccine to its citizens.
Israel still faces difficulties in its effort to fight the virus. The country’s third national lockdown did not slow the spread of COVID-19. Rapid expansion variant the virus that was first discovered in Britain is now spreading in Israel. So far, the Pfizer / BioNTech injection appears to be effective against him.
“So far we’ve identified the same 90 to 95 percent effectiveness against the British voltage, ”Said Hezi Levi. He is director-general of the Israeli Ministry of Health.
The Pfizer vaccine requires two doses, or injections, to be effective. For that reason, Levi said it is too early to know about protection levels because many people only received their second dose last week. He added that it is still too early to know whether the vaccine is effective against another variant of the rapidly spreading virus that started in South Africa.
Good results so far
Israel started its vaccination program on December 19. It paid a high price for the supply of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine.
Four days later, the rapidly spreading British variant was found in four people in Israel.
After that, Israel decided to start giving injections to people over 60. Over time, the program was open to the rest of the population.
Information collected by Israeli healthcare provider Maccabi shows that only six out of 10,000 people were infected with COVID-19 a week after receiving their second dose of Pfizer. At 22 days after complete vaccination, no infection was recorded.
Pfizer says the vaccine’s effectiveness begins a week after the second dose is administered.
An 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 suggests that viruses become endemic and seasonal.
She predicted that the coronavirus would become much less aggressive, possibly requiring an additional injection 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 –N. a number or collection of different things or people
conclusion –N. an opinion or final judgment
voltage –N. a group of living beings closely related
dose –N. the amount of medication or vaccine needed to cure or help a condition
transmissible –Adj. able to be passed from one person or animal to another
endemic –N. common to a place
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