Israel: vaccination results point to way out of pandemic

Currently, Israel leads the world in immunization per capita. Statistics from Our World in Data, a portal supported by the University of Oxford, show that more than 244 million people worldwide have already received vaccines.

In proportional terms, Israel is the country that applied the most doses: vaccinated 93 out of 100 of its inhabitantsfollowed by the United Arab Emirates, with 60 people out of 100, and the United Kingdom, with 30 people out of 100.

Having already vaccinated a large part of its population, it is possible to observe how the plan succeeds a direct impact on the decrease in the number of infections, hospitalizations and deaths due to covid-19, showing a plausible way out of the pandemic to the rushing world to stem the virus before more dangerous mutations spread.

This news adds to other signs of hope after months of desolation. A growing number of vaccines show high efficacy against Covid-19 and some trials suggest that Vaccines may even have the potential to slow the transmission of the virus.

The new Israeli study, meanwhile, analyzed national health statistics for people aged 60 or over, the first to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine because of its high risk. Looking at data from six weeks after the vaccination campaign, when most people of that age had been vaccinated, they found that the number of new Covid-19 cases fell 41% from three weeks earlier. This group also experienced a 31% drop in hospitalizations for coronavirus Yes a 24% drop in seriously ill.

This particular study is important, in part, because the authors could isolate other factors, including locks, which also reduce the number of infections; and they found that even taking these factors into account, vaccines had a significant impact.

On another side, The results are even more surprising when you consider that Israel is dealing with a disturbing new variant of the coronavirus.. The variant B.1.1.7 First identified in Britain in December, which has spread to 72 other countries and may be up to 50% more transmissible than other variants, it now accounts for up to 80% of samples tested in Israel .

Even so, the experts stress the need to be careful about the results because in the study only general trends were observed in the country rather than tracking who had been vaccinated.

It is not known, for example, why a decrease in cases, serious illnesses and hospitalizations was observed three weeks after the start of the campaign, when in the clinical trial of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the first signs of protection were observed for about 10 days. after the first dose; and it is believed that this “slow impact” could have been linked to the fact that the campaign was mainly directed towards the elderly, whose immune systems took longer to defend themselves.

It is also possible that other countries have not lived the same scenario as Israel since keep the vaccine at a low temperature (necessary for it to remain effective) during transportation, it may be difficult in some places.

“The message to the world is that even if you vaccinate at a high rate like Israel, you will still have to be patient.“, He said Hagai Rossman |, co-author of the Weizmann study. “There is no magic wand“.

Meanwhile, the country has slowly started to return to normal life and the Ministry of Health has launched its “green passport” program, a certificate that is given to people who have been vaccinated or who have recovered from the coronavirus and which allows them to enter certain places and participate in activities.

As part of the program, registered gyms, theaters, hotels, concerts and synagogues can now operate, and the use of masks and social distancing, however, remain in effect indefinitely.