Pfizer: “Israel has become the laboratory of the world”

“I think Israel has become the laboratory of the world right now because they only use our vaccine in this state and they have vaccinated a very large part of its population, so we can study both the economic and the health indices. “said Albert Bourla, CEO of Pfizer, during an interview with NBC News.

“What we have seen is that the effectiveness of the vaccine in real world data increases after the second vaccination,” said Bourla.

When asked if other people could be infected after receiving two doses of the vaccine, he said, “This is something that needs to be confirmed, and the real world data that we are getting from Israel and further studies will help us understand it better. “But right now there are many indicators that tell us that there is protection against the transmission of the disease,” Bourla added.

Bourla further noted that studies are also being conducted on the risk of the vaccine in pregnant women and young children. “We already have the license for children aged 16 and over… we are already testing children aged 11 up to 16, and hopefully we can have data in a few months. We also plan to start pediatric studies at an earlier age, 5 to 11 years old. And I think we should have data on that population by the end of the year. “ He said.

Regarding the duration of protection after receiving the two doses of the vaccine, Bourla said current data shows that after six months the protection is strong, but it takes up to a year to determine if it is maintained for the entire period. .

The NBC interview also mentioned the recent Israeli study on the effectiveness of the vaccine, and Bourla noted that much of the data came from a younger population. He said it was always very risky to rely on a single dose of the vaccine to fight the coronavirus.

Israel continues its rapid vaccination campaign against the coronavirus, and this Friday surpassed a key symbolic figure: half of its population has administered at least one dose, while more than a third have already received the second. Given the pace of the campaign, the Government remains firm in its objective of vaccinating the majority of citizens by the end of March and of specifying its reopening in early April.

The country, which It has about 9.2 million inhabitants, has already inoculated more than 4.6 million with a dose of the vaccine, according to the Ministry of Health. Jerusalem is the fastest vaccination campaign in the world in terms of the percentage of the population that has been vaccinated.

The positive effects are tangible. The number of infections has declined slightly in recent weeks, which experts attribute in part to the advance of vaccination but also to a third national lockdown of a month and a half that began to be lifted in February.

Vaccination has been open for weeks to all Israelis over 16 years of age. The inoculation rate in people over 70 years exceeds 90% and more than 80% of people over 50 have already received the first dose, while for those inoculated in the age group between 20 and 29 years old, the figure is almost 60%.

This month, mortality and hospital admissions of critically ill patients from COVID-19 also declined, although Health warned the guard could not yet be lowered and authorities continue to approach reopening with caution.

In recent days, the number of daily coronavirus cases has remained around 4,000, a number the ministry still considers too high to fully lift the restrictions.

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