Today 49% of the population has already received at least the first dose and the over 60 group is completely immunized. The result? Cases are decreasing day by day and shops, gyms, schools and events are reopening in the country. Maybe forever. Not only that, but another important news arrives: perhaps Pfizer’s solution is able to prevent infection as well.
–
In Israel plays concerts. In Israel, shopping malls, museums, libraries and gyms are reopening. Probably definitely. In short, in this country we begin to see for real the end of the pandemic. I almost “I’m in free fall“, Professor Guido Silvestri points out, from Emory University, and it happens why 49% of the population received at least the first dose of vaccine and the over 60 range is almost completely immunized. Not only that, Pfizer-BioNTech’s drug is returning exceptional data, even if for the moment some are only preliminary and we have to wait for confirmations. An example? It would be able to also prevent infection from SARS-Cov-2 and not just the disease, namely Covid-19.
The situation in Israel today
We can say that the Israeli population today is breathing more lightly. Some of the burdens that the pandemic has forced us to bear is being removed and the activities that are permitted in that state they still seem to us distant mirages. One among all, concerts. That’s right. Right now, those who live in Israel can participate in a musical event – but also sporty – both outdoors and indoors. However, some restrictions remain, such as the number of participants which in the first case is 500 and in the second 300 and which can never exceed 75% of the capacity of the venue. And of course, everyone has to wear a mask and keep their distance. But what is certain is that people are beginning to perceive a slow and progressive return to normal.
Music and sporting events start again, gyms, schools, museums and shopping centers reopen
The museums, shops, synagogues and the gyms. Those who want to visit these places, however, must present a sort of passport that certifies the vaccination. The only exception concerns some people who have recently recovered from Covid-19 and who have been shown to have developed antibodies. Without any need to pass, however, they also started again face-to-face lessons at school.
How they did it
The answer is simple: vaccinating. We already told you about the speed with which the vaccination campaign was progressing in Israel and today we can all see the first concrete results. The country is emerging from a lockdown announced on December 27th of the arrival of the English variant. But today, variants or not, the new openings they really seem destined to last forever.
The order in which they proceeded is the one common to all States: first the health personnel, then the over 80s and gradually the increasingly younger people. According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by the end of the first week of March, 95% of the over 50s it should turn out completely immunized. This incredible speed was made possible by an agreement, which for a long time remained secret, between the government and the pharmaceutical company Pfizer: not only have the doses been paid more, but the country has committed to providing more data than to subjects who were vaccinated and to any adverse reactions.
Does Pfizer prevent infection?
It never hurts to repeat it: the primary purpose for which these vaccines were developed and produced is to prevent disease. Indeed, in an even more restricted way, avoid that the symptoms of Covid-19 are so severe as to force you to hospitalize. Therefore, starting from this basis, all the benefits that are obtained in addition are so much gained. And in the case of mRNA vaccines, the data that arrives are more than positive.
At the moment it comes of preliminary studies, that is, that still have to be validated by external auditors and therefore it is good to grant them that minimum of doubt. But if they were confirmed, we would be facing a real turning point: the Comirnaty vaccine, produced by Pfizer-BioNTech, would be able to also prevent infection with an effectiveness around 90%. A percentage that would also have value in relation to the English variant, which is the most widespread in Italy. Preliminaries, yes, but they are not the only ones. A survey published in the magazine The Lancet and performed among the hospital staff of the Sheba Medical Center revealed how infections were reduced by 75%.
This would mean that a person vaccinated he would no longer even risk contracting the virus and be positive. Consequently, the risk of transmission from an asymptomatic positive to a person not yet immunized would also be avoided. The result? SARS-Cov-2 it would have more and more difficulty in getting around because he would no longer know which person to “host” in order to survive. Viruses need to infect a cell, otherwise they simply die.
And Pfizer’s is not the only one to have shown success rates in this regard. In the data published by the FDA, the American body that regulates the marketing of drugs, in December 2020, already leaked the suspicion that also Moderna’s solution was able to prevent infection as well as disease. In truth, it wouldn’t be a surprise: the two vaccines work with the same mRNA technology and are very similar in many ways. It is therefore to be expected that the results that will emerge as various countries continue with the administrations will largely overlap.
The other excellent results
But this possibility is not the only one that gives us good hope. Like announced the Israeli health minister, Pfizer’s vaccine has been shown to:
- prevent disease with an efficacy of 95.5% (even greater than that found in the phase 3 studies)
- prevent complications from Covid-19 with an effectiveness of 99.2%
- prevent the risk of hospitalization and death with 98.9% effectiveness
These data were collected by looking at the population that had already received the second dose, approximately 1.7 million as of January 30th. To make you understand how important they are, I remind you that the anti-flu that is modified every year has an effectiveness that is between 40% and 60%, that against measles is 97% and 92% as regards the chickenpox.
And no, it’s not over yet. In the study published in The Lancet that I mentioned earlier, another important aspect also emerges: Pfizer’s vaccine would achieve 85% effectiveness already after a couple of weeks from the first dose. A discovery that, if confirmed, could also lead to a revision of the vaccination campaign and perhaps to its desirable acceleration.
And in Palestine?
One question that always remains open when looking at Israel’s efficient vaccination campaign is that of Palestine, a very poor state inhabited by 5 million people. According to the UN and the European Union, territories like the Gaza Strip and the West Bank they would be officially occupied by Israel which should therefore provide health care and therefore also vaccine supplies. Israel, on the other hand, simply denied any responsibility. Any supply in any case must be approved by this state, because the cargo must first cross its borders to arrive in Palestine.
Israel has promised to vaccinate the 100,000 Palestinians working on its territory
A small crack seems to have opened, since at the beginning of last week about 2 thousand doses of the Russian drug Sputnik V they have arrived at their destination and will be inoculated in those who have undergone an organ transplant and those suffering from kidney failure. Meanwhile, the Minister of Health has struck an agreement from his Israeli counterpart for the vaccination of the approximately 100,000 Palestinians working in Israel. For the rest, Palestine just has to wait for the arrival of the 2 million doses of AstraZeneca and above all those purchased by the Covax program of the World Health Organization, which aims to buy vaccines for the poorest nations.
Sources | Veronesi Foundation; “Early rate reductions of SARS-CoV-2 infection and COVID-19 in BNT162b2 vaccine recipients” published in The Lancet on February 18, 2021
The information provided on www.ohga.it are designed for
integrate, not replace, the relationship between a patient and their doctor.
–
–
