Israel’s rapid vaccination effort provides important information about the COVID-19 vaccine from pharmaceutical company Pfizer.
Reuters news reporters spoke with prominent scientists from Israel and elsewhere, Israeli health officials, hospital chiefs and two of the country’s largest health care providers. The goal was to find the latest information on the country’s especially fast-paced vaccination campaign.
About 3.5 million Israelis have been totally or partially vaccinated. That is, more than half of the people who form groups are supposed to be vaccinated first. These groups show 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% reduction in new cases in the first fully vaccinated group. In addition, there were 39 percent fewer hospitalizations and a 31 percent drop in serious illnesses from mid-January to Feb. 6, Segal said.
More information will be known in two weeks, as teams study the effectiveness of the vaccine in younger groups of Israelis and people with certain conditions.
“It simply came to our notice then variety of people in this subgroup and enough tracking time so you can do the right thing conclusions, and we get to that point, “Ran Balicer said. He is an official for Israeli health care provider Clalit.
Pfizer watches the Israeli effort each week to understand more about the vaccine and how it works.
The Israel campaign offers Pfizer and its partner, the German BioNTech, an unusual opportunity. The small country has health care for all its citizens and the ability to gather and study data. Israel has also provided the vaccine quickly to its citizens.
Israel still faces struggles in its effort to fight the virus. The third national in the country confinement has not slowed the spread of COVID-19. A rapid spread variant of the virus first found in Britain is now spreading to Israel. So far, the Pfizer / BioNTech feature seems to be effective against it.
“So far we have identified the same 90% to 95% effectiveness against the British cepHezi Levi said. He is the director general of the Israeli Ministry of Health.
The Pfizer vaccine requires two doses or shots to be effective. For this reason, Levi said it is too early to know the levels of protection because many people only received the second dose in the last week. He added that it is still too early to know if the vaccine is effective against another variant of the fast-spreading virus that started in South Africa.
Good results so far
Israel began its vaccination program on December 19. He paid a high price for supplies 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 shooting people over 60 years old. Over time, it has opened the program to the rest of the population.
Information gathered by Israeli health care provider Maccabi shows that only six out of 10,000 people became infected with COVID-19 a week after receiving their second dose of Pfizer. At 22 days of complete vaccination, no infections were recorded.
Pfizer claims that the effectiveness of its vaccine begins a week after the second dose is given.
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. He said data from the past suggests viruses are being converted endemic and seasonal.
He predicted that the coronavirus would become much less aggressive, possibly requiring an additional shot in three years.
He 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. has 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
cep –N. a group of closely related living things
dose –N. the amount of medicine or vaccine needed to cure or help suffer from an illness
contagious –Adj. able to pass from one person or animal to another
endemic –N. common to a place
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