Good news from Israel. The Pfizer vaccine is working well at reducing Covid cases in the over 60 crowd.
If it isn’t obvious the blue line is what happened prior to vaccination, the orange - taupe line is what happened as the vaccination was rolled out. As you can see from the orange - taupe dashed vertical line which is 7 days after the second dose of vaccine was rolled out the cases dropped fast.
I think Israel has the highest vaccination rate of any country, like 61% or something crazy.
Yeah they made a deal with Pfizer to share their data in return Pfizer agreed to ship them all the vaccine they could use at whatever rate they could use it.
Do you know if Israel had a lockdown for the second wave, or was it only for the first wave? If that downward trend is with just the vaccine, and no lockdown, that is seriously impressive! But even if it’s with a vaccine and lockdown, still awesome news.
I can’t wait for the vaccine!!! Canada is having delay after delay, and it’s seriously depressing at times.
I think the 2nd wave had the start of the lockdown. Which is why the trend is already decreasing even though the vaccinations hadn’t been completed. But what is awesome to me, is the increased slope downward because of the vaccine after the second vertical line. Very impressive
They also paid a premium, and they paid up front, unlike most countries, which entered supply agreements to purchase up to a certain number of doses as needed, and sometimes (like Canada) for vaccines that were still in trials or even still in development. They also made agreements only with Pfizer and Moderna, I think, whose phase 3 results were in by then. So unlike countries that made agreements for a whole bunch of vaccines, they were in a position to say “We’ll pay X for Y million doses of this proven vaccine, and here’s the money.”
A number of other factors came into play. Every citizen is in the national health database and easily reachable. They have a central health system, not individual states and counties and provinces that all want to do things their own way. And they had a certain preparedness for mass vaccinations in the event of biological warfare or bioterrorism attack.
It’s not all a bed of roses, according to some reports. Of course, everyone loves to complain these days …
They’ve had a number of lockdowns, some of the world’s longest and strictest. The most recent one ends this weekend.