Another hope for curbing the corona plague: Preliminary findings from Israeli and American researchers reveal that the corona vaccine not only significantly prevents morbidity and mortality, but also significantly reduces the risk of infection. Although the new data have not yet been peer-reviewed, as is the case in large studies, the findings are consistent with previous estimates that vaccines are likely to reduce the rate of infection as well.
Read more about the effectiveness of the vaccine:
This was one of the main questions in the development of corona vaccines, throughout the studies of Pfizer and Moderna it was clear that mRNA vaccines are effective and safe, but the question remains whether they will also prevent infection, which will prevent the spread of corona virus.
Now researchers from the Israeli Myheritage Institute, which conducts some of the PCR tests in Israel, together with American researchers, have found that the viral load (ie the amount of corona viruses) in the bodies of vaccinated people drops significantly compared to those who are not vaccinated. This means that the chance of transmitting the virus, which is done through saliva fragments, also decreases. This is based on the knowledge accumulated over the past year, and the knowledge about the transmission of droplet viral diseases in general, which demonstrates that the higher the concentration of viruses – the higher the chance of infection from person to person.
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(Photo: Meshi Ben Ami)
Israel started the corona vaccine on December 20, 2020, and used mainly the BNT162b2 vaccine better known as the “Pfizer vaccine”. Initially, as I recall, medical teams and people aged 60 and over were vaccinated, and currently over 80% of people in this age group are at least a week after receiving the second dose.
The researchers, Dr. Orna Moore, Neta Zuckerman, Danit Or Levy, Assaf Junger, Dvir Aran, Yaniv Erlich and Ella Peter from the Institute and the Central Virus Laboratory in Tel Hashomer, monitored the virus values in the PCR tests, at Myheritage Laboratory in Petah Tikva, between December 1 2020 to January 31, 2021, among people whose swab specimens were transferred to a laboratory on suspicion of corona disease Two age groups were tested: one aged 60 and over, and the other aged 40 to 60.
According to the researchers, vaccinating 75% to 90% of the population will lead to the eradication of the corona plague, which will make it possible to eliminate the need for closures, distance and masks. This is of course only a hypothesis, based on past epidemics and an understanding of corona virus behavior
The researchers hypothesized that if vaccines did reduce the viral load (thus reducing the risk of infection), there would be a difference between the viral load in these two age groups: those aged 60 and over would be vaccinated with lower levels of corona viruses, and those in the 40-60 age group not yet Complete corona vaccines will have high levels of the virus.
According to the researchers’ hypothesis, until January 15, no statistically significant differences were found in the viral load between the two groups. But in the last two weeks of January there has been a reversal, and researchers have seen a drop in viral load in people aged 60 and over, compared to people aged 40 to 60.
The researchers estimated based on the results that the corona vaccine reduces the viral load up to 20 times in people who are positive for the corona and have been vaccinated. “The findings suggest that the vaccine is important not only to protect the vaccine itself but also to reduce infection to others,” the researchers concluded.
Corona vaccine. Protects the vaccinated and also reduces infection
(Photo: Gadi Kabalo)
There is no doubt that corona vaccines, if they do not completely destroy the virus in the body, they at least prevent its replication and significantly reduce the risk of a vaccinated person infecting others. However, there is still a faint theoretical possibility, that the virus manages to hide in the body, in various concealment mechanisms, and replicate there or that its remnants in the respiratory system are not destroyed and may pass to others.
However, the chances of this are not great. The flu epidemic gives clues to this: Influenza viruses are constantly undergoing changes and developing mutations, and the virus has a rapid infectivity, although it is not like that of the coronavirus. Still, influenza vaccines have been shown to reduce hospitalizations in adults by about 40 percent and hospitalizations in intensive care units by 80 percent or more. Further studies have also shown that vaccinated medical staff are protected from infection, and in such wards where staff are vaccinated – there is less infection of non-vaccinated inpatients.
But even in the worst case scenario, where the corona virus is able to evade the immune system and stay in the body and possibly infect others, the many vaccines developed in such a short time, and showing such high efficacy, will quickly eradicate the epidemic. And the faster we reach herd immunity, that is, the vaccination of about 90% of the population, the greater the chance that we will return to normal life, and perhaps even to smiling faces around us, and not through the mask.