80% of people over 60 are vaccinated
Israel is the fastest in the world to vaccinate against corona. Nearly half of Israelis have been given a vaccine and more than 30 percent have even received twice. More than 80 percent of people over 60 have already had the injections. What is the effect of this, and what can we learn from it?
1. Vaccination works
Infections, hospitalizations and numbers of critically ill people have all declined in Israel. This mainly happened in the groups that had been vaccinated the most, such as the elderly. The result is now even that the average age of people in hospital has fallen because of corona. In the ICU it has even dropped from 70 years to 61 years. The lockdown will of course also have caused the decline, but an analysis of health data has shown that the decline was mainly among the vaccinated.
The Pfizer vaccine, in particular, has been purchased in large quantities in Israel, in addition to a small amount of the Moderna vaccine. This was partly in exchange for data on the people receiving the vaccine. For example, a large study health data from 600,000 people show that the risk of getting sick from a coronavirus is 94% lower than for unvaccinated peers. The risk of severe COVID-19 is 92% lower. The Pfizer vaccine also works well in people over the age of 70, something we have not yet been able to deduce from the clinical studies. This research method is somewhat less robust than the placebo-controlled studies, but still very valuable.
2. The side effects of the vaccines are not too bad
The first results show that less than 0.1 percent of people got sick in the week after the second shot of the Pfizer vaccine.
3. National measures can be relaxed
Israel was in a pretty strict lockdown. But now that the vaccines appear to work well, the measures are being relaxed. This means, among other things, that schools will open again and that you can pick up food from restaurants again.
4. Extra freedom possible for vaccinated persons
Those who have been vaccinated twice will soon receive a barcode to his phone sent from health insurance. With this code you get access to many more amenities, such as a cafe, a hotel or the gym. The code is scanned at the entrance. Greece and Israel are now starting with a joint ‘travel bubble’. People who have been vaccinated can cross the border without a COVID test or quarantine.
But there is also criticism: if there is a new corona variant that the vaccine has less control over, a new wave of infections could arise. It does seem that the Pfizer vaccine is effective against the British corona variant.
5. Who will get a vaccine first?
In the Netherlands we mainly discuss whether the elderly should be vaccinated first, or care providers. In Israel there is another discussion, because the vaccines are mainly distributed among the Israelis and not among the Palestinians. Since a few days, the Palestinian authorities have also started vaccinating, but this is not nearly as high. The international community urges that the Palestinians in the occupied territories be vaccinated, as has been done with the Israeli settlers in the West Bank. Israel has supplied 2,000 Moderna vaccines, which now vaccinate Palestinian health care providers, but that is a drop in the ocean for the 5 million Palestinians.
