Vaccine vs variant: Promising data in Israel's race to defeat pandemic
Skip to main content
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Splash
    • Videos
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Thursday
August 11, 2022

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Home
  • Economy
  • Stocks
  • Analysis
  • World+Biz
  • Sports
  • Features
  • Epaper
  • More
    • Subscribe
    • COVID-19
    • Bangladesh
    • Splash
    • Videos
    • Games
    • Long Read
    • Infograph
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Thoughts
    • Podcast
    • Quiz
    • Tech
    • Archive
    • Trial By Trivia
    • Magazine
    • Supplement
  • বাংলা
THURSDAY, AUGUST 11, 2022
Vaccine vs variant: Promising data in Israel's race to defeat pandemic

Coronavirus chronicle

Reuters
10 February, 2021, 02:30 pm
Last modified: 10 February, 2021, 02:38 pm

Related News

  • 1 Covid death, 198 cases reported in a day
  • 1 Covid death, 239 cases reported in 24hrs
  • US lauds Bangladesh’s success in Covid vaccination, food security
  • Air raid sirens sound in Jerusalem area: army
  • Children aged 5-11 to get Covid jabs from 11 August

Vaccine vs variant: Promising data in Israel's race to defeat pandemic

Older and at-risk groups, the first to be inoculated, are seeing a dramatic drop in illnesses

Reuters
10 February, 2021, 02:30 pm
Last modified: 10 February, 2021, 02:38 pm
Technicians work at Healthcare Maintenance Organisation (HMO) Maccabi's coronavirus disease (COVID-19) public laboratory, performing diverse and numerous tests, in Rehovot, Israel February 9, 2021. REUTERS/Ammar Awad
Technicians work at Healthcare Maintenance Organisation (HMO) Maccabi's coronavirus disease (COVID-19) public laboratory, performing diverse and numerous tests, in Rehovot, Israel February 9, 2021. REUTERS/Ammar Awad

Israel's swift vaccination rollout has made it the largest real-world study of Pfizer Inc's Covid-19 vaccine. Results are trickling in, and they are promising.

More than half of eligible Israelis - about 3.5 million people - have now been fully or partially vaccinated. Older and at-risk groups, the first to be inoculated, are seeing a dramatic drop in illnesses.

Among the first fully-vaccinated group there was a 53% reduction in new cases, a 39% decline in hospitalizations and a 31% drop in severe illnesses from mid-January until Feb. 6, said Eran Segal, data scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.

Graphic: Trends in Covid-19 infections and hospitalisations in Israel following vaccination

In the same period, among people under age 60 who became eligible for shots later, new cases dropped 20% but hospitalizations and severe illness rose 15% and 29%, respectively.

Reuters interviewed leading scientists in Israel and abroad, Israeli health officials, hospital heads and two of the country's largest healthcare providers about what new data shows from the world's most efficient vaccine rollout.

The vaccine drive has provided a database offering insights into how effective the vaccines are outside of controlled clinical trials, and at what point countries might attain sought-after but elusive herd immunity.

More will be known in two weeks, as teams analyse vaccine effectiveness in younger groups of Israelis, as well as targeted populations such as people with diabetes, cancer and pregnant women, among a patient base at least 10 times larger than those in clinical studies.

"We need to have enough variety of people in that subgroup and enough follow-up time so you can make the right conclusions, and we are getting to that point," said Ran Balicer, chief innovation officer of HMO Clalit, which covers more than half the Israeli population.

Pfizer is monitoring the Israeli rollout on a weekly basis for insights that can be used around the world.

As a small country with universal healthcare, advanced data capabilities and the promise of a swift rollout, Israel provided Pfizer with a unique opportunity to study the real-world impact of the vaccine developed with Germany's BioNTech

But the company said it remained "difficult to forecast the precise time when herd protection may start to manifest" because of many variables at play, including social distancing measures and the number of new infections generated by each case, known as the reproduction rate.

Even Israel, in the vanguard of the global vaccine drive, has lowered expectations of emerging quickly from the pandemic because of soaring cases.

A third national lockdown has struggled to contain transmission, attributed to the fast-spreading UK variant of the virus. On a positive note, the Pfizer/BioNTech shot appears to be effective against it.

"We've so far identified the same 90% to 95% efficacy against the British strain," said Hezi Levi, director-general of the Israeli Health Ministry.

"It is still early though, because we have only now finished the first week after the second dose," he said, adding: "It's too early to say anything about the South African variant."

Which Arm?

Israel began its vaccination programme Dec. 19 - the day after Hanukkah - after paying a premium for supplies of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.

Four days later, the more contagious UK variant was detected in four people. While the vaccine is preventing illness in older people, the variant now makes up about 80% of new cases.

Finding themselves in a race between the vaccine and the new variant, Israel began giving shots to those over 60 and gradually opened the programme to the rest of the population.

Every detail was digitally tracked, down to in which arm the patient was jabbed and what vial it came from.

One week after receiving the second Pfizer dose - the point at which full protection is expected to kick in - 254 out of 416,900 people were infected, according to Maccabi, a leading Israeli healthcare provider.

Graphic: Covid-19 infections among vaccinated people 

Comparing this against an unvaccinated group revealed a vaccine efficacy of 91%, Maccabi said.

By 22 days after full vaccination, no infections were recorded.

Israeli experts are confident the vaccines rather than lockdown measures brought the numbers down, based on studying different cities, age groups and pre-vaccine lockdowns.

The comparisons were "convincing in telling us this is the effect of the vaccination," said Weizmann Institute's Segal.

With 80% of senior citizens partially or fully vaccinated, a more complete picture will begin to emerge as soon as this week.

"And we do expect further decline in the overall cases and in the cases of severe morbidity," said Balicer, of HMO Clalit.

Vaccines And Transmission

There may be early signs that vaccinations are tamping down virus transmission in addition to illness

At Israel's biggest Covid-19 testing centre, run by MyHeritage, researchers have tracked a significant decrease in the amount of virus infected people carry, known as cT value, among the most-vaccinated age groups.

This suggests that even if vaccinated people get infected, they are less likely to infect others, said MyHeritage Chief Science Officer Yaniv Erlich.

"The data so far is probably most clear from Israel. I do believe that these vaccines will reduce onward transmission," said Stefan Baral, from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Maryland.

Diminishing Returns

It is unclear whether Israel will be able to keep up its world-leading vaccination pace.

"When you vaccinate fast and a lot, you eventually get to the hardcore - those who are less willing or harder to reach," said Boaz Lev, head of the Health Ministry's advisory panel.

The vaccination pace is seen even more crucial with the British variant's rapid transmission.

"In the race between the UK variant spreading and the vaccinations, the end result is that we are seeing a kind of plateau in terms of the severely ill," said Segal.

The big question is whether vaccines can eradicate the pandemic.

Michal Linial, a professor of molecular biology and bioinformatics at Jerusalem's Hebrew University, said data from past decades suggests viruses become endemic and seasonal.

She predicted this coronavirus would become far less aggressive, perhaps requiring a booster shot within three years.

"The virus is not going anywhere," she concluded.

Top News / World+Biz

Israel / Coronavirus Vaccine / Covid -19 / covid-19 vaccine / vaccine data / Vaccine efficacy / Vaccine acceptance / Vaccine

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Fuel price hike could have been avoided with BPC savings: CPD
    Fuel price hike could have been avoided with BPC savings: CPD
  • Can’t afford any more losses: BPC chairman
    Can’t afford any more losses: BPC chairman
  • A worker holds a nozzle to pump petrol into a vehicle at a fuel station in Mumbai, India, May 21, 2018. REUTERS/Francis Mascarenhas/File Photo
    Short measure at petrol pumps due to low commissions: Owners' association

MOST VIEWED

  • Workers wearing protective suits arrive to a building under lockdown for compulsory testing, following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in Hong Kong, China January 7, 2022. Photo :Reuters
    Hong Kong cuts Covid quarantine stay for incoming travellers
  • People line up for nucleic acid tests during lockdown, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, in Shanghai, China, May 26, 2022. REUTERS/Aly Song
    China's Sanya holiday hotspot shuts duty-free malls, venues to curb Covid
  • FILE PHOTO: People wearing protective face masks walk amid concerns over the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) in Pyongyang, North Korea May 15, 2020, in this photo released by Kyodo. Mandatory credit Kyodo/via REUTERS
    North Korea marks end of first Covid wave, but risks persist
  • A woman holds a small bottle labelled with a "Coronavirus COVID-19 Vaccine" sticker and a medical syringe in this illustration taken October 30, 2020. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/File Photo
    South Africa reports first death causally linked to Covid vaccine
  • 'Living with Covid': Where the pandemic could go next
    'Living with Covid': Where the pandemic could go next
  • A worker, wearing a protective suit following the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak, transports luggage on the tarmac of Wuhan Tianhe International Airport, on a hot summer day in Wuhan, Hubei province, China July 14, 2022. cnsphoto via REUTERS
    China's Wuhan locks down 1m residents amid new Covid cases

Related News

  • 1 Covid death, 198 cases reported in a day
  • 1 Covid death, 239 cases reported in 24hrs
  • US lauds Bangladesh’s success in Covid vaccination, food security
  • Air raid sirens sound in Jerusalem area: army
  • Children aged 5-11 to get Covid jabs from 11 August

Features

The elevated ground is made out of soil on which grass and trees have grown. This grass-covered elevated ground extends to the perimeter of the establishment. Photo: Maruf Raihan

Aman Mosque: Where form and function complement each other

1d | Habitat
Photo: BSS

Begum Fazilatunnessa Mujib . . . woman of moral power

2d | Thoughts
Will Glass Cosmetics be your next skincare holy grail?

Will Glass Cosmetics be your next skincare holy grail?

2d | Brands
Akij Tableware: More than just dishes on a table

Akij Tableware: More than just dishes on a table

2d | Brands

More Videos from TBS

Salimullah Khan on Ahmad Safa's thinking on nature

Salimullah Khan on Ahmad Safa's thinking on nature

6h | Videos
Will Tata turn around the Indian car market?

Will Tata turn around the Indian car market?

6h | Videos
Those who remain in morgue for years after death

Those who remain in morgue for years after death

8h | Videos
Is Donald Trump getting caught in tax evasion case?

Is Donald Trump getting caught in tax evasion case?

8h | Videos

Most Read

1
Dollar crisis: BB orders removal of 6 banks’ treasury chiefs 
Banking

Dollar crisis: BB orders removal of 6 banks’ treasury chiefs 

2
Diesel price hiked by Tk34 per litre, Octane by Tk46
Energy

Diesel price hiked by Tk34 per litre, Octane by Tk46

3
Photo: Collected
Transport

Will Tokyo’s traffic model solve Dhaka’s gridlocks?

4
Infographic: TBS
Banking

Dollar rate will be left to market after two months: Governor

5
Arrest warrant against Habib Group chairman, 4 others 
Crime

Arrest warrant against Habib Group chairman, 4 others 

6
File Photo: State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid
Energy

All factories to remain closed once a week under rationing system

EMAIL US
[email protected]
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2022
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - [email protected]

For advertisement- [email protected]