Israel Vaccine Data Suggests Decrease in Covid-19 Infection Rate After First Dose
January 14 2021 - 4:40PM
Dow Jones News
By Felicia Schwartz and Dov Lieber
TEL AVIV -- Early data from Israel suggests Covid-19 infection
rates began to decrease among a group of vaccine recipients two
weeks after they received the first shot of Pfizer Inc. and
BioNTech SE's vaccine, offering important insights to other
countries as they roll out their own campaigns.
The small country -- whose roughly nine million population is
about the size of New York City's -- has vaccinated nearly a fourth
of its population in just under a month, the first country to hit
that mark as it fights an upsurge in new infections.
Israel's largest health-care provider, Clalit Health Services,
compared test positivity rates among 200,000 people over 60 who
received the vaccine with 200,000 that didn't. Until day 14, there
was little difference between the two groups. But after that, the
data showed a 33% fall in infection rates among those who had
already been vaccinated compared with those who hadn't.
Clalit noted that the number of people infected was
statistically significant, but said it wouldn't release final
numbers until its study is published.
Pfizer says people must receive both doses of the vaccine for it
to be fully effective. In Pfizer's trials, the vaccine was shown to
take about 12 days before it started to protect people.
The Clalit study suggests that the first dose could reduce
infections among those vaccinated as early as two weeks after
injection.
While Pfizer's research was based on people who had symptomatic
Covid-19 and a positive lab test, Clalit's data analysis was based
on Covid-19 tests provided both to people who felt symptoms and to
those who didn't, such as people who came into contact with others
who had Covid-19, according to Ran Balicer, chief innovation
officer at the Israeli health-care provider.
Israel, like many other countries, has given priority to those
over 60 in the first stage of its vaccination drive, making the
group the best fit for study, said Mr. Balicer, who is also
chairman of Israel's national advisory team on Covid policy. Nearly
three out of four people in this age group have received the first
dose of the vaccine since Israel's campaign began on Dec. 20.
Israel has committed to providing Pfizer with real-time data
about their vaccine, from effectiveness to side effects, which
Israeli officials said helped it procure early shipments from the
vaccine maker.
Separately, Israel's Health Ministry published data about side
effects from the vaccine, saying they were similar in frequency and
character to other vaccinations given to its people.
Of the 1.7 million who were vaccinated by the time the report
was published, just 1,127, or 0.06%, reported side effects, which
included weakness, headaches, dizziness and fever as well as pain
or swelling at the site of the shot. So far 15 people needed to be
hospitalized after the shot, mostly due to pre-existing
conditions.
Even as Israel accelerates the vaccine's rollout, aiming to
inoculate the majority of its population by March, its Health
Ministry officials warned that people must still be vigilant.
Israel has hit a pandemic peak in recent days at an average of
over 9,000 new daily infections and is averaging between 40 and 50
deaths a day. As of Thursday morning, 1,842 patients with
coronavirus were hospitalized, of which 1,095 were in critical
condition. Israel last month imposed a third lockdown to contain
the new surge in infections.
Among those who are critically ill, 17% of them have already
received their first doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
Israeli health officials say the latest surge can be explained
by the fact that much of the population remains unvaccinated.
People in ultra-Orthodox and Arab communities that are hardest hit
aren't taking the shots as much as those in other communities and
the spread of the virus has increased since the detection of the
new U.K. coronavirus variant, health officials say.
Write to Felicia Schwartz at Felicia.Schwartz@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 14, 2021 16:25 ET (21:25 GMT)
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