Israel started applying third dose against COVID-19 to people over 60

While many Western countries are still struggling to expand the population with the full anticovid vaccination schedule, Israel ventures into uncharted territory administer from this Friday a third injection to people over 60 years of age.

To boost the campaign, the president Isaac Herzog, 60, and his wife Michal received their third dose of Pfizer / BioNTech at Sheba Hospital, in the suburbs of Tel Aviv. Also the former prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu a third injection was given.

“We have launched the campaign to strengthen immunization” so that life can get back to normal as quickly as possible, President Herzog said after being vaccinated.

Administration of three doses of the anticovid vaccine enhances protection facing the contagious Delta variant, according to the Pfizer laboratory, but it has not been approved by the health authorities of the United States or the European Union.

Israel’s decision “is based on expert opinion, on logic, but not on solid scientific evidence. But it’s OK”, told the agency AFP Hebrew University of Jerusalem epidemiologist Hagai Levine. “In public health and medicine, we sometimes make decisions based on our experience and reasoning”he added.

Israel has deployed a rapid vaccination campaign thanks to an agreement with Pfizer/BioNTech Yes lifted many restrictions in June, when new COVID-19 infections fell from 10,000 to less than 100 per day.

But contagions rebounded in recent weeks and Measures such as the obligation to wear a mask in closed public spaces have returned.

One 55% of its nine million inhabitants have the full immunization schedule, but around a million they refuse the injections.

Faced with the increase in infections, the Prime Minister, Naftali Bennett, announced a campaign to inject a third dose to people aged 60 and over to the fear aroused by the contagious Delta variant.

In mid-July, the government authorized this third injection to patients with severe immunosuppression, that is to say those whose weak immune system this makes them particularly vulnerable to the virus.

“Israel is a pioneer in taking the lead with a third dose of the vaccine for people 60 years and older,” Bennett, 49, who accompanied President Herzog to the hospital for the injection said Friday.

The Prime Minister assured that his government “he is open to sharing all the information he will derive from this daring initiative. “

According to Pfizer, “a third dose has neutralizing effects against the Delta variant, [que son] five times higher among young people and more than eleven times higher among older people ”.

But for now, the US drug regulator, the FDA, whose recommendations are consistently followed by Israel, has not given the green light to inject a third dose.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recalled this Friday that the priority is now to help countries in difficulty and with a lower percentage of the vaccinated population.

“At present, (…) all vaccines appear to have a positive impact in preventing severe cases, hospitalizations and deaths,” said Dr Bruce Aylward, who is responsible for overseeing the international system of delivery of vaccines to WHO Covax.

For this reason, the priority is “to provide at least two doses of the vaccine (…), especially to health workers, the elderly and people with co-morbidities” to achieve the WHO minimum target of at least 10% of the population of each country has been vaccinated by the end of September, he added.

In the past 24 hours, Israel has recorded more than 2,100 cases of COVID-19, according to data on Friday. In addition, there are 286 hospitalized patients, 160 in critical condition.

(By Guillaume Lavallée – AFP)

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