Photographer: Kobi Wolf / Bloomberg
Photographer: Kobi Wolf / Bloomberg
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According to the country’s second-largest health network, Israel’s leading campaign to vaccinate its citizens is beginning to curb the disease.
Maccabi Health Services studied a sample group of 50,777 people over the age of 60 inoculated in late December and then mid-January. Gross data showed that two days after the second shot, the number of new infections and hospitalizations dropped by about 60% from its maximum, the researchers reported.
Trends began to change about two weeks after the first dose, according to an analysis by the Maccabi KSM Research and Innovation Center in collaboration with Israeli computational health researchers KI Institute.
Shoot change
Israeli analysis shows that the Pfizer vaccine reduces cases of positive viruses
Source: Maccabi Research and Innovation Center
A separate Israeli study of health workers who received two doses of the shot from Pfizer Inc. found elevated levels of antibodies in almost all participants that matched or exceeded clinical outcomes.
Israeli study on Pfizer shot finds high levels of antibodies (1)
Israel has been using the Pfizer vaccine heavily since it began its vaccine in late December, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu campaign data to streamline and expand shipments. The country has adhered to Pfizer guidelines on a second shot about three weeks after the first, reserving the second doses.
Read more: Electoral pressure in Israel is helping to speed up the vaccination process
To date, approximately 2.5 million people, or more than a quarter of the population, have received a first dose, with nearly a million more the second. Children under the age of 16 who have not been approved for the vaccine account for about 30% of the country’s 9.3 million people.
The country is currently in the midst of a third blockade that began in late December to control the resurgence of the outbreak. In all, Israel has had nearly 600,000 cases and more than 4,360 deaths.
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