The US is debating the third dose of Covid-19 vaccine. Israel discusses a quarter.

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As U.S. regulators consider whether to start implementing a third dose of Covid-19 vaccines, and governments in all but the richest nations are struggling to get enough shots to distribute the initial doses to their populations, Israel he is already stockpiling vaccines for a fourth dose.

The director general of the country’s health ministry, Nachman Ash, said on Sunday in a radio interview that Israel was beginning to prepare to offer a fourth dose if needed, according to a Bloomberg report. The comments follow previous statements made on Israeli radio last weekend by Dr. Salman Zarka, the Israeli tsar of Covid-19, in which he said the country should begin preparing to administer fourth doses of vaccines against the Covid-19, according to a report published in Time of Israell.

Israel is the first country to widely administer third-dose Covid-19 vaccines. The small nation, which has relied heavily

Pfizer

(ticker: PFE) i

BioNTech

The Covid-19 (BNTX) vaccine began offering boosters to the entire population in late August. Earlier, a reinforcement campaign has begun among the elderly.

According to Bloomberg, Israel has administered third doses to 2.8 million people. The country was the first country with a large population to successfully vaccinate a large part of the residents, after reaching an agreement

Pfizer

under which he paid a premium per dose and offered the company access to data on the distribution, use and effectiveness of vaccines.

The first intensive vaccination campaign did not save Israel a fourth wave of the virus driven by the Delta variant this summer. The country has said it has data showing that a booster dose of the Pfizer vaccine had a substantial impact in reducing the incidence of serious diseases. CNN reported late last week that the New England Journal of Medicine will publish an article describing the data this week.

This document will arrive before a key meeting of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration committee advising the agency on vaccines, scheduled for this Friday. The group, the Advisory Committee on Vaccines and Related Biological Products, will need to consider whether the FDA should authorize a booster dose of Pfizer’s Covf-19 vaccine.

The Biden administration said last month that it planned to begin implementing a third dose in all U.S. age groups next week, but neither the FDA nor the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have signed the initiative.

Members of the committee advising the CDC on recommended vaccination schedules, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, indicated at a meeting in early September that they could support a more specific booster campaign. Meanwhile, several media outlets reported that the retirement of the director of the FDA office responsible for vaccine regulation and his deputy in late August was related to his displeasure with the booster plan announced by the House. White.

The White House in recent days seems to be taking a step back from assurances that the reinforcement campaign will begin next week. He said last week, in the context of a wider announcement, about his efforts to backtrack against the virus that the booster release could “start already” next week.

Meanwhile, outside the developed world, vaccines are still scarce. At a briefing on September 8, the director general of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said no nation should offer booster doses until the end of the year.

“A month ago I called for a global moratorium on booster doses at least until the end of September, to prioritize vaccination of the world’s most at-risk people who have not yet received their first dose,” Ghebreyesus said. “Since then, there have been few changes in the world situation, so today I call for an extension of the moratorium until at least the end of the year to allow all countries to vaccinate at least 40% of their population.”

Ghebreyesus said that while third doses may be needed for “the most at-risk populations,” for now “we don’t want widespread use of reinforcements for fully vaccinated healthy people.”

Write to Josh Nathan-Kazis at [email protected]