Israel states that the U.S. booster program supports its own proactive promotion

Israel is promoting an aggressive campaign to provide coronavirus boosters to almost everyone over the age of 12, with the approach being driven by the US decision to inject elderly and high-risk patients. It states that it has been further proven.

Israeli authorities amplifier Shots, which already infect about one-third of the population, help control the country’s latest wave of COVID-19 infections. They say the different approaches are based on the same perception that boosters are the right path, and hope that the United States and other countries will expand their campaigns in the coming months.

Dr. Nadab Davidovich, Dean of the Department of Public Health at the University of Ben Gurion in Israel and President of the Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians, said: “Currently the main issue is prioritization.”

The World Health Organization has called for a moratorium on boosters until at least the end of the year so that more people in poor countries can receive the first two doses, but Israeli authorities say booster shots prevent infection. Says it is as important as.

“The current system of vaccine nationalism is hurting us all, and it is certain that it is producing variants,” said Davidovich, a member of the Israeli government’s expert committee. But he added that the problem was “much wider than Israel.”

Israel left the gate to vaccinate most of the adult population earlier this year after signing a contract with Pfizer to trade medical data in exchange for a stable dose supply. I also bought a lot of Moderna and AstraZeneca vaccines.

By March, most adults had been vaccinated twice with the Pfizer vaccine, causing the level of infection to plummet and the government to lift almost all coronavirus restrictions.

However, in June, highly infectious delta variants began to spread. After investigating this issue, experts concluded that the vaccine remained effective against the virus, but its effectiveness diminished about five months after the second injection.

In late July, Israel began distributing booster shoots to endangered citizens, including those over the age of 60. Within a few weeks, we expanded the campaign to the general public.

According to the Ministry of Health, more than 3 million of Israel’s 9 million citizens have been vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine for the third time.

In a study published last week New England Journal of Medicine, Israeli experts said that in people who were vaccinated five months ago, boosters increased vaccine efficacy by a factor of 10 compared to patients who were not vaccinated.

The study followed about one million people over the age of 60, and boosters were “very effective in reducing the rate of both confirmed infections and serious illnesses,” the Ministry of Health said.

Israeli official Dr. Sharon Alroy Price was one of the experts who testified in support of booster shots at the US Food and Drug Administration panel last week. However, regulators have chosen to allow boosters only to people over the age of 65 and to high-risk groups, and have decided to oppose boosters for the general public.

Experts cited the lack of safety data on additional doses and questioned the value of mass boosters rather than targeting specific groups.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Made similar support Thursday.

The Israeli Ministry of Health said the FDA’s decision “justified the third vaccination surgery” underway in Israel and “acted responsibly and swiftly to treat growing infections.” I’ve decided. ” According to statistics, the booster effect “regained protection”.

Over the past few weeks, there has been a “new decline in the rate of infection in the elderly,” the majority of whom have undergone booster shots, and “the proportion of unvaccinated individuals in new severe cases continues to increase. “We are,” Dr. Lan Barriser, a member of the government’s expert advisory board on Chief COVID-19, told The Associated Press.

Over the last few weeks, booster campaigns have increased the proportion of unvaccinated cases in severe COVID-19 cases and reduced the overall number of new cases of two or more infected individuals.

As of Friday, about 70% of Israel’s 703 serious cases of COVID-19 were unvaccinated and about 20% were unboosted. A month ago, after Israel vaccinated 1.5 million people Third dose, These two groups were equally represented in the serious case.

Over 60% of Israelis (the overwhelming majority of the adult population) receive at least two coronavirus vaccines.

Some experts have pointed out that the United States and Europe are months behind Israel’s vaccination campaign and predicted that these countries will follow suit in the coming months.

“We are first experiencing a phenomenon that will become apparent in many other countries in the coming months, where it will create similar challenges,” Bariser said. “Currently, few other countries are walking in our position.”

Britain already Development of booster campaignA third dose is offered to people over the age of 50 and other vulnerable groups.

WHO has called on rich countries to refrain from running out of vaccine stockpiles with boosters while much of the world has not yet received the vaccine. People with certain health conditions may need a third injection, but “at this stage of the pandemic, boosters for the general public are not appropriate,” he said.

“The longer the vaccine inequality, the more likely it is that the virus will circulate and change, social and economic turmoil will continue, and more variants will reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine,” he said in a statement on Friday. Said.

Barriser said Israel as a small country has little impact on the world’s supply and its role as a world research institute provides other countries with a “very important source of knowledge.”

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett has encouraged the public to obtain vaccine boosters as part of an active public relations campaign since taking office in June.

“Israel is the only country in the world to give its citizens this gift of booster potential, both legally and in terms of supply,” he said last week.

Barriser said other states need to prepare a national plan for the deployment of booster shots.

“Recently vaccinated countries need to be prepared for the effects of decline vaccination Immunity will emerge in the middle of winter, further exacerbating the challenge. ”

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