While continuing the global debate on the use of Covid-19 booster doses, Israel vindicates the success of its campaign with Pfizer’s third vaccine for the entire population, with which it anticipated the rest of the world and which helped it to stop its fourth wave of the pandemic, currently almost at an end.

At the end of July, without yet having the approval of international organizations or the US and EU health authorities, Israel approved inoculating people over 60 with a third injection, a measure progressively extended to the rest of the age groups that has contributed to reducing the morbidity rate in the country.

In two and a half months, the campaign advanced rapidly and there are more than 3.7 million people – out of a total population of 9.3 – who received the booster dose. This was key in the strategy to face the fourth wave of coronavirus designed by the new coalition Executive headed by Naftali Benet.

THIRD DOSE INSTEAD OF RESTRICTIONS

Given the new peak of infections that soared this summer, attributed in part to the spread of the contagious Delta variant, the government chose not to apply severe restrictions and reinstated only moderate measures to keep the economy active.

Benet – who refused to impose a new confinement – bet heavily on the third dose and encouraged the population to get vaccinated, even with a campaign of telephone calls with automated messages in which he himself urged the Israelis to receive the puncture.

In turn, Health devised a new green pass system: only those vaccinated with the booster dose, those who have a full two-dose schedule in the last six months or those recovered from the virus in this same time frame are entitled to the certificate that allows them to access a whole series of public spaces or activities.

This conditioned that many were vaccinated to lead a normal life and it applies to many facilities, including universities, where students – who started the academic year the day before yesterday – must present their green pass if they want to attend face-to-face classes.

FINAL STRAIGHT OF THE FOURTH WAVE

As recently reiterated by senior health officials, Israel left behind its peak of infections weeks ago and is heading towards the end of its fourth wave, which at the beginning of September resulted in records of more than 11,000 new cases per day.

“We are coming out of the fourth wave”, the national coordinator of the pandemic, Salman Zarka, declared yesterday, although he warned that caution must be maintained because “it has not yet reached” its end.

“The danger is still there, the virus is still among us,” said Zarka, who urged to remain on guard to avoid a fifth wave.

The infection rate in Israel has gradually decreased and is now around 2,300 daily cases. The percentage of positives is around 2%, a low figure compared to 8.4% a month and a half ago. Also, there are only about 25,000 active cases, very few compared to more than 90,000 in early September.

In turn, critically ill patients have dropped a lot: there are currently fewer than 430 critically admitted patients, which is a 35% decrease compared to the 660 hospitalized just two weeks ago.

On the other hand, more than 75% of seriously ill patients are not vaccinated. In fact, at least 10% of Israelis fit to inoculate chose not to do so, another factor that contributed to the increase in infections during the fourth wave, according to specialists.

BOOSTER DOSE AGAINST REDUCING IMMUNITY

This wave was also conditioned by the progressive decline in immunity: at the end of 2020, Israel was one of the first countries to start the inoculation, and in spring it had vaccinated a large part of the population with two doses, but the data indicate that immunity it waned over time, which coincided with the spike in infections.

Given this, “a good practice is to administer a third dose at least five months after the second,” explains Nadav Davidovitch, director of the School of Public Health at Ben Gurion University and advisor to the Government in managing the pandemic.

The side effects of the Pfizer booster injection are “similar” to the second or first dose, so that “its benefit” is “much greater” than the possible harm, “even for young people”, considers the expert, who believes that the Israeli experience can be a reference for other countries that have not yet followed this path.

At the end of September, the United States began to apply the third dose of Pfizer for those over 65 and adults at risk.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) also indicated this month that Pfizer’s booster vaccine is “safe and effective”, although it is the member countries who decide on this process.

In turn, a group of experts from the World Health Organization (WHO) recommended yesterday that certain risk groups receive a third dose, despite the fact that the agency had asked in August for a moratorium on these inoculations.

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