Israel has vaccinated more than half of its population against COVID-19 in just five weeks, significantly affecting their infection rate.
This is the highest percentage in the world, and most of the vaccines used in Israel to date have come from the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer.
Israel has even set the ambitious target for 80 per cent of its 9 million citizens to be fully vaccinated by May.
Pzifer’s rapid immunization program will help to understand how his vaccine is performing among different age groups.
But not everyone is on board Israel’s plan.
So what exactly is Israel doing?
Israelis began receiving the first glimpse of the vaccine developed by Pfizer on December 19th.
Since then, about 55 percent of the population has received at least one glimpse of the two-dose regimen, according to COVID vaccine administrator Bloomberg.
Nearly 20 percent of Israelis have received both full doses, meaning they are fully vaccinated.
This is good news for a country that is currently considered one of the worst COVID-19 sites in the world.
All Israelis over 16 are eligible
Tel Aviv’s mother Ayelet Klartag was desperate to get the vaccine quickly as the country was catching up with what some scientists say is the third wave.
“We left the children at home to try to get vaccinated at the big building in Tel Aviv,” the 40-year-old said.
“We didn’t succeed. And every time we came home to the kids we said, ‘Okay, we didn’t get the vaccine today. We’re sorry.'”
But after several weeks of waiting, Ms Klartag received word from Israeli health services that it was time for her to finally get the vaccine.
“We left the kids at home and went. It felt like a very special day.”
The Israeli program could be good news for the world
Israel has a universal health care system and every citizen has a digital health record.
That has been very appealing to Pfizer, which has signed an agreement with Israel for anonymous data on vaccine recipients, including age, gender and demographic information.
It is hoped that real-world data will add to the knowledge of how the vaccine performs, and if goals such as herd immunity can be achieved.
It will also help scientists understand how new coronavirus modifications perform with the currently available vaccines.
What do Israel’s early results show?
Initial data show that the Pfizer vaccine is performing well, showing a fall in infection levels after a single shot.
The chance of a positive test two weeks after receiving the first injection is 33 percent lower than the average chance of a person without a vaccine, according to Professor Ran Balicer, an epidemiologist at Israel’s largest health care provider Clalit Health Services.
An analysis from Maccabi Healthcare Services, another Israeli healthcare provider, described similar results.
But it is still early days.
The information is predictive and has not yet been peer reviewed. It is also not a clinical trial and vaccinations have started with older and more vulnerable patients.
And while the vaccine has been effective in preventing people from becoming moderate or severely ill from COVID-19, it is not yet known whether the vaccine stops the spread of the virus from COVID. vaccine to the vaccine.
However, Hassan Vally, Associate Professor at La Trobe University, says the early results are “miraculous”.
“I think one of our concerns is that the distribution of the vaccine has the potential in the real world without giving you results as good as the clinical trials, which are in a controlled setting, “he says.
“So if anything, this is kind of a demonstration, in the right situation, that this vaccine is performing well.”
This all feels very good. Why are some people unhappy?
Some advocacy groups have raised privacy and ethical concerns about the deal between Israeli health services and Pzifer to share data about people who received the images.
They say key information from the publicly disclosed agreement was re-examined and questioned why data should be given to a U.S. pharmaceutical company for profit.
“Israel is concerned about what data is being shared with Pfizer,” said Professor Aditya Goenka of the University of Birmingham’s Department of Economics.
“It is more controversial because previously, there was a case where some of the information regarding who had been shared with the Internal Security Service was shared without proper consent.”
But what about the newer versions of COVID-19?
That’s the big unknown, but experts don’t think it’s going to be too much of a problem yet.
Some of the most recent modifications of COVID-19, including B.1.1.7 strain, and UK snoring, have not been reported in Israel.
However, the South African variant has already arrived, with the country’s Ministry of Health reporting that at least 30 cases have been detected.
Israel has recently extended its ban on international flights to Sunday, in a bid to keep the new series out of the country.
That means we do not yet have a clear picture of how the Pfizer vaccine is performing on the new variables.
But Dr Hassan Vally says it’s not worth worrying about too much yet.
“I think we need to tighten up our response to these variables,” he says.
“[We need to] understand that it does not mean that the standard vaccines do not work, it may mean that the effectiveness may be slightly reduced.
“It’s important to just get vaccines out there. And obviously we have vaccines that work.”