‘Vaccines are working’: Israel figures predicting its next return to normal

Israel’s 73rd Independence Day also marks its exit from COVID-19, at least for now»He wrote yesterday on Twitter Eran Segal, one of Israel’s most prestigious scientists and professor of computational biology at the Weizmann Institute of Sciences. “Since the peak in mid-January, there are 98% fewer cases; 93% fewer seriously ill patients; 87% fewer deaths; 85% aged 16 or over vaccinated / infected “

“Life is about to return to pre-COVID. The remaining restrictions can probably be lifted“, He predicted with a well-argued hope which was also celebrated by the prestigious doctor Eric J. Topol, professor of molecular medicine at the Scripps Research Institute who served on the advisory board of the COVID Tracking Project.

“Vaccines work. Vaccines workHe repeated in a tweet repeatedly, referring to the numbers presented by Segal, before concluding: “And very good. Also against B.1.1.7”, highlighted with reference to the variant of the coronavirus first identified in Britain.

Why am I highlighting this strain? Because in your country, the United States, variant B.1.1.7 has become the most dominant. “Think of it as a super-prevalent version of the virus, able to outperform variants that can’t be transmitted as effectively. We know from Britain, where this variant is responsible for nearly 100% of infections, that vaccines have been very effective in reducing cases, hospitalizations and deaths. Reports from Israel, which vaccinated its population faster than any other country, showed that the effectiveness of mRNA vaccines was not diminished by the three most common “ variants of concern, ” your signature on The New York Times.

The United States is experiencing a fourth wave of COVID-19, the most dramatic in Michigan, where over the past two weeks the number of new cases has increased by 60% and deaths and hospitalizations have more than doubled.

“Vaccines were not available in previous waves”, observed the doctor, but now, “with the current influx of vaccines, it is possible to stop the increase in cases as soon as they appear. Unfortunately, the United States is strictly determined to allocate vaccines solely on the basis of population rates, instead of using a specific approach to control hot spots like Michigan. This approach is contrary to what has worked in other countries like Israel and Britain. “

In exchange, Israel, which has led the world’s fastest coronavirus vaccination campaign, may consider ending the pandemic on its territory, as Segal notes. The country has 9 million inhabitants and 85% of the population over the age of 16 has already been vaccinated against COVID-19 or infected with the virus. Almost 5 of its 9.5 million inhabitants (53% of the population) have already received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine in Israel.

In this way, common life has almost completely recovered.

In January, the month Segal refers to the third wave of COVID-19, there were sometimes 10,000 confirmed cases per day, But the Hebrew country has managed to reduce the number of those infected to less than 200 thanks to the vaccination.

This authorized authorities to reopen restaurants, bars and beaches, in addition to making agreements with Cyprus and Greece for Israelis to travel for tourism to these countries.

In addition, on Wednesday they announced that From May 23, it will authorize the arrival of tourists. Israeli authorities had almost hermetically closed borders to leisure travelers after the pandemic began in March 2020.

The Ministries of Health and Tourism have indicated that tourists will be able to return to Israel from the end of May if they are vaccinated and have a negative PCR test, in addition to taking a serological test upon arrival in Israel to demonstrate the effectiveness of his vaccination.

First, the Israeli authorities will only allow “group” trips and the number will be “limited”, the Ministry of Tourism said in a statement. Later, tourists will be able to travel individually, although this possibility will depend on the evolution of the health crisis.

Infographic: Marcelo Regalado

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