Israel will give third COVID booster shot to older citizens.
Israel’s prime minister announced on Thursday that the country would offer coronavirus boosters to more than 60 people who have already been vaccinated.
Naftali Bennett’s announcement makes Israel, which launched one of the world’s most successful vaccination campaigns earlier this year, the first country to offer its citizens a third dose of a wide-scale Western vaccine.
“I am announcing this evening the start of the campaign to get a booster vaccine, the third vaccine,” Bennett said in a nationally televised address. “Reality proves that vaccines are safe. Reality also proves that vaccines protect against serious morbidity and death. And like the flu vaccine that needs to be renewed from time to time, that’s the case.”
The decision comes at a time of increasing infection and indicates that the vaccine’s effectiveness diminishes over time.
Anyone over the age of 60 who was vaccinated more than five months ago would be eligible. Bennett said the country’s new president, Isaac Herzog, would be the first to receive a booster on Friday. It will also be offered to the general public.
Bennett, who is 49, said his first call after the news conference would be to encourage his mother to get a booster shot.
Neither the US nor the European Union has approved coronavirus booster shots. It is not yet proven whether the third dose helps and if so, who needs it and when.
But Bennett said a team of expert advisors overwhelmingly agreed with a 56-1 margin that it made sense to launch a booster campaign. He said the recommendation was made after “considerable research and analysis” and the information would be shared around the world. Preliminary studies in Israel have indicated that the vaccine’s protection against serious disease has decreased among those who were vaccinated in January.
“The findings suggest that the body’s immunity declines over time, and the purpose of the booster is to reinvigorate it, thus significantly reducing the chances of infection and serious illness,” Bennett said.
Israel has used the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine on its population. Previously, boosters were used with Chinese and Russian vaccines in some countries.
Earlier this year, Israel carried out one of the world’s most aggressive and successful vaccination campaigns, inking an agreement with Pfizer to buy enough vaccines for its population in exchange for sharing its data with the drugmaker .
More than 57% of the country’s 9.3 million citizens have received two doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, and more than 80% of the population over 40 have been vaccinated.
The vaccination program allowed Israel to reopen its economy ahead of other countries. But Israel has seen a rise in cases of the new delta variant, even among those who have been vaccinated. Bennett urged unvaccinated Israelis, especially young people who have been hesitant, to get vaccinated immediately.
Earlier this month, Israel began giving individuals with weakened immune systems a third shot to increase their resilience against COVID-19.
Pfizer said Wednesday that the vaccine’s effectiveness drops slightly six months after the second dose. Pfizer and its German partner BioNTech have said they plan to seek authorization for the booster in August.
Most studies – and real-world data from the UK and US – so far show that the Pfizer vaccine is powerfully protective against serious disease. Just on Wednesday, Pfizer released data from its long-running 44,000-person study showing that there was a slight drop in protection against any symptomatic infection six months after vaccination, but protection against severe COVID-19 was around 97 percent. % doing. Earlier this month, Israel’s health ministry announced that protection against serious illness is around 93%.
The World Health Organization said earlier this month that there was not enough evidence to show that a third dose was needed.
Agency officials have urged rich countries to share vaccines with poor countries that have not yet vaccinated their people, rather than using them as boosters. Israel itself has come under criticism for not sharing more of its vaccines with the Palestinians.
Israel’s health ministry on Thursday reported at least 2,165 new coronavirus cases, after a sharp rise in infections over the past month. Severe cases of COVID-19 have risen from 19 in a day to 159 in mid-June as the highly contagious delta variant spread.
Thanks to its successful vaccination campaign, Israel lifted almost all of its coronavirus restrictions this spring. But as new cases rise, the country has tried to stem the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant, by reinstating a “green pass” system for vaccinated people to enter certain enclosed spaces, including at gatherings. By banning, and mandate an indoor facade.
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