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Israel was one of the first countries in the world to launch a comprehensive COVID vaccination campaign aimed at inoculating its entire adult population.
And when, in early April, some 70 percent had received two shots of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, the country lifted most restrictions and effectively reopened its economy and returned to normalcy.
Now, however, as reported by the Financial Times on 11 August, Israel is experiencing the highest levels of new infections since February, and is now administering a third booster shot to all those over 50. Over 80 percent of adults are now fully vaccinated, and yet there were 6,000 new cases on 9 August. About 5 percent of tests are coming back positive, which represents a major increase.
The surge is attributed to the Delta variant and to the diminishing effectiveness of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine; see the Trends Journal item of 13 July, “COVID JABS: STRIKE THREE.” The fading power of the vaccine over time renders particularly vulnerable those over 60, some of whom received their first shots as early as December.
About 90 percent of the new cases are in persons over 50. Israel began administering booster shots two weeks ago which have already been given to some 2,000 immunocompromised persons. The booster shot program was extended, on 3 August, to everyone over 60; with as many as 600,000 Israelis in that age group having now received a third shot, Israeli officials are offering the shot to younger people who are employed in geriatric and health care institutions, or suffer from underlying conditions.
Israel hopes that a third dose will boost antibody levels and thereby stop the spread of the virus, and the rise in the number of serious cases.
Until then, PM Naftali Bennett has asked every Israeli citizen over 50 to “be very careful in the coming weeks.” That is probably an allusion to the upcoming Jewish High Holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur in September, a time when families gather, putting older relatives at risk.
TREND FORECAST: To fight the COVID variant, we forecast the Israeli government will at first impose less restrictive new lockdown orders in the hopes it would forestall a longer general lockdown that would more negatively affect the economy.
TRENDPOST: As we have reported, data from Israel, which is a world leader in vax rates, found that the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID jab that was sold as being 96 percent effective is in fact only 40.5 percent effective in preventing the symptomatic disease and only 16 percent in stopping symptomatic infection for those who got two jabs back in January.