Wrong. Again. Call it 0 for 256 tries
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/05/world/middleeast/israel-virus-vaccination.html
Israel’s Vaccination Results Point a Way Out of Virus Pandemic
Covid cases fell dramatically and quickly among people who were vaccinated, Israeli studies found. It’s the strongest evidence yet that a robust vaccination program can tame the pandemic.
A woman receives her second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at a nursing home in Ramat Gan, Israel.Credit...Oded Balilty/Associated Press
By
Isabel Kershner and
Carl Zimmer
Published Feb. 5, 2021Updated April 5, 2021
JERUSALEM — In the most extensive real-world test so far,
Israel has demonstrated that a robust
coronavirus vaccination program can have a quick and powerful impact, showing the world a plausible way out of the pandemic.
Cases of Covid-19 and hospitalizations dropped dramatically among people who were vaccinated within just a few weeks, according to new studies in
Israel, where a rapid vaccine rollout has made it a kind of test laboratory for the world. And early data suggests that the vaccines are working nearly as well in practice as they did in clinical trials.
“We say with caution, the magic has started,”
tweeted Eran Segal, a quantitative biologist at the Weizmann Institute of Science and co-author of a new study on the vaccine’s impact in Israel.
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The hopeful news on vaccines is hardly a free ride to a post-pandemic future.
As the world races to curb the virus before more dangerous mutations spread, dire vaccine shortages may prevent other countries from replicating Israel’s success, or from stopping new variants from emerging.
WHAT ABOUT THE PALESTINIANS?
Israel’s vaccination success
has raised questions about whether the country must do the same for millions of Palestinians.
Even Israel, which has outpaced every other nation in vaccinating its people, is far from out of the woods. The country extended its third nationwide lockdown on Thursday.
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Still, researchers found hope in the vaccine’s ability to quickly drive down cases among Israelis getting the shots.
“I find this pretty persuasive that we are seeing actual effects of population-level vaccination,” said William Hanage, an epidemiologist at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health who was not involved with the Israeli study.
The real-world news from Israel adds to other signs of hope after months of bleakness. A growing number of vaccines are showing strong efficacy against Covid-19 and are particularly protective against severe illness. Some trials suggest that vaccines might even have the potential to slow transmission of the virus.
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The new Israeli study looked at national health statistics for people 60 years and older, who received the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine first because of their high risk. Analyzing data from six weeks into the vaccination campaign, when the majority of people that age had been vaccinated, they found that the number of new Covid-19 cases dropped by 41 percent compared to three weeks earlier.
Image
Coronavirus testing in Ramat Gan, Israel, last month. New cases of Covid-19 fell dramatically among people who had been vaccinated. Credit...Abir Sultan/EPA, via Shutterstock
That group also experienced a 31 percent drop in hospitalizations from the coronavirus, and a drop of 24 percent of those who became critically ill.
The study is important, in part, because the authors were able to isolate other factors, including lockdowns, which also reduce the number of infections. The researchers found that even taking those factors into account, the vaccines had a significant impact.
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How big an impact remains to be determined.
But new data released Thursday by one of Israel’s largest health networks suggest the vaccine’s protection in practice may be nearly as good as it was in the clinical trial.
The vaccine
had a 95 percent efficacy rate in clinical trials. Researchers warned in November that those numbers might not hold up in the real world.
People who volunteer for trials may not represent the population as a whole, for example. Also, the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is challenging to administer on a national scale because it has to be kept frozen until shortly before it’s administered.
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But Maccabi Healthcare Services reported Thursday that out of 416,900 people it had vaccinated, only 254 had gotten Covid-19 a week after their second dose. What’s more, all of the cases were mild. Comparing these rates to unvaccinated people, the researchers estimated that the vaccine has an effectiveness of 91 percent.
