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The health ministry backtracked on Friday’s apparent claims by the Israeli virus czar that Pfizer’s first dose of vaccine offers less protection against COVID-19 than the US pharmaceutical company originally indicated, saying its words had been quoted out of context.
Earlier this week, Army Radio reported that Nachman Ash, in a meeting with health officials, noted that many people had been infected between the first and second shots from Pfizer and questioned the effectiveness of the vaccine after a single dose. Data on the protective effect against the virus from the first dose is “less than that presented by Pfizer,” he said.
Pfizer claims its vaccine, produced with BioNTech, is about 52% effective after the first dose and increases to about 95% within days of the second dose.
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In a statement released on Friday, the health ministry said reports of the tsar’s comments were “out of context and inaccurate.”
“The vaccination campaign in Israel began a month ago … during an outbreak of morbidity and mortality in the country, which makes it difficult to assess the effectiveness of the vaccination without bias,” said the ministry. “The initial assessment reveals some protective effects of the vaccine and these are being carefully studied by the Department of Health.”
“The commissioner said we have yet to see a decrease in the number of critically ill patients. As the second dose is being given to populations at risk these days, we expect to see the full protective impact of the vaccine, ”the statement said.
An education worker receives an injection of COVID-19 vaccine at a Clalit clinic in Jerusalem on January 12, 2021 (Yonatan Sindel / Flash90)
The health ministry also announced on Friday that it had broken a record for daily vaccinations on Thursday, with 244,000 Israelis vaccinated.
Ministry figures show 2,441,379 Israelis received the first dose of the vaccine and 850,811 of them the second.
Israel is the world leader in per capita immunization, according to Our World in Data, based in Oxford.
More than a month after Israel’s vaccination campaign began, health ministry officials had hoped to see a dramatic drop in daily infections and severe cases, but there is no such trend for the moment. The most contagious virus variants – especially the British strain – are blamed for difficulty in bringing down disease rates and alleviating the heavy burden on hospitals, despite lockdowns and mass vaccinations.
The ministry also reported a slight drop in daily coronavirus infections, with Israel’s worst outbreak since the start of the pandemic appearing to be easing after weeks of strict lockdown rules.
According to the ministry, 7,099 new cases were confirmed on Thursday, after peaking at more than 10,100 earlier in the week. With 1,228 more cases since midnight, the total number of infections recorded in Israel has reached 585,746.
The drop in daily cases came as test levels also declined, although the rate of positive tests fell to 8.9%.
The death toll stood at 4,245, with 27 deaths recorded on Thursday.
The ministry said there were 82,029 active cases, with 1,845 patients hospitalized for COVID-19. Of these, 1,128 were in serious condition, including 310 on ventilators.
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