Israel’s vaccination rollout that began last December. (file)
Jerusalem:
Experts cited recent data to say Israel’s program of booster jabs has proven to be effective in reducing severe COVID cases, even as new infections near record highs.
Since taking office in June, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has insisted he will aim to avoid any new lockdowns, a pledge his government has kept, even as nearly 9.3 million people The country regularly records more than 10,000 new Covid cases in a day.
Schools opened on September 1 and synagogues are set to welcome worshipers, with some restrictions for Yom Kippur, the most important day of the Jewish calendar – when services begin on Wednesday evening.
In order to stay open, Israel has opted for a complex policy mix, forcing families to repeatedly conduct COVID testing to ensure their children go to school or participate in other activities.
The backbone of Bennett’s strategy has been the rollout of a third shot of the PfizerBioEntech vaccine for everyone 12 years of age and older, ignoring criticism that the booster jab is unnecessary and unfair.
But this week the 49-year-old prime minister insisted his approach was working.
“Many people were skeptical,” he told his cabinet. “But our strategy is proving itself.”
Top public health experts agreed, citing recent figures, telling AFP that even though daily cases remain high, the booster shot has halted the rise in serious Covid cases, easing the crisis that arose last month. Had been.
third shot
Israel’s vaccination rollout that began last December was the fastest in the world and brought infections into a tizzy until June, when all pandemic restrictions were lifted.
But when cases began to rise again during the summer, health experts faced an important question, said Gabby Barabash, a former director general of the Ministry of Health with the Weizmann Institute of Science.
Was the surge in effectiveness five months after the PfizerBiontech vaccine’s second jab due to a lack of effectiveness, or, was the Delta version’s ability to break through vaccine protections to blame?
“When the fourth wave hit, we weren’t sure which was the major factor,” Barbash told AFP.
But weeks after the start of the third jab rollout, the number of serious cases – which rose from more than 70 in late July to 600 by mid-August – has stabilized, currently below 700. The transition between the triple jab is also very short. .
Those factors, Barbash said, make it clear that “the decrease in immunity is what caused the fourth wave.”
“The effectiveness of Pfizer’s vaccine is clearly declining after five months,” he said.
“And when this kind of weakened immunity comes from such transmissible variants (like Delta), it’s a disaster.”
He acknowledged criticism, particularly from the World Health Organisation, that offering a third time was an injustice with some poor countries struggling to offer a single shot.
But Barabash argued that Israel’s small population would not insist on global vaccine supplies and underlined that it could have seen 1,000 deaths per month if Israel had not given the shots.
More than 7,400 Israelis have died from Covid-19.
Cyril Cohen, a professor of life sciences at Bar Ilan University and a member of the Ministry of Health’s Vaccine Committee, cited more than 60 demographic data to highlight the effectiveness of the booster shot.
“If you haven’t been vaccinated, you’re about 35 times more likely to develop a severe case than if you’re older than 60, and if you’ve had two doses and no booster shots,” he said. .
Hagai Levin, an epidemiologist at the Hebrew University, told AFP he had “some doubts” about the need for a third shot, but the stabilization of severe cases proved the effort was “successful”.
test, jab, test
Israelis have expressed dismay at the challenges of booking COVID tests, especially during the high holiday season when families usually gather.
The backlog has also been caused by the high number of children who have been exposed to the virus and need negative tests to re-enter school.
At a drive-thru testing center in Jerusalem, mother of three Julia Ortenburg told AFP that days after school started, a classmate of her daughter tested positive for Covid, forcing her class into quarantine .
Ten days into the school year, 44,000 pupils with Covid and more than 119,000 were confirmed ill in isolation, according to health ministry data.
Ortenberg said she was reluctant to vaccinate her 13-year-old son, but without the jab she would have to follow classes on Zoom or appear in person every two days to get a negative Covid test, which “was not an option”.
Her run-up to Yom Kippur included a daunting attempt to book an exam to release her daughter from isolation, taking her son for another test in her pocket, and then taking her daughter for another exam. Go.
Cohen acknowledged the disappointments but said Israel is still “trying to find the right balance to live with Covid-19”.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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