In recent days there has been a lot of noise about the effectiveness of vaccines, and it is time to put things in order. • There is no doubt that this is the only strategy to get out of the crisis •
December 9th is a founding day in the State of Israel
- the first vaccines for Corona have landed at Ben Gurion Airport and we are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. It is known, what is not yet known, and whether there are any risks in taking the vaccine.
Netanyahu at the vaccination ceremony: "I will be the first to get vaccinated in the country" // Photo: GPO
As with any medical intervention one should always weigh risk versus benefit.
You can also die from taking paracetamol and yet most of us when our head hurts (this is not a life-threatening disease) are chosen to take treatment despite the minimal risk involved.
In the last year, the corona has robbed us of our lives, in the country alone, close to 3,000 people died from the corona.
In England one in 1,000 citizens dies from corona.
Some of the severely ill patients who recovered were left with significant disabilities.
We are seeing more and more people whose illness has been mild, but they continue to suffer from various corona-related symptoms and we do not know at this point whether all of these problems will go away in the future.
The disease has silenced the economy in Israel and around the world, many people have lost their livelihoods and degenerated into poverty, the education system has been closed for many months, our cultural life has been completely silenced, there are no shows and performances, we can not travel and can travel abroad.
So what do we know about the RNA vaccines that are going to be available in the country in the coming days?
The vaccine is based on technology that has been in development for over a decade, so there is already extensive research experience in animals and humans even before the outbreak of the plague.
The vaccine contains an RNA molecule, which encodes the S protein of the corona virus.
This molecule is unstable and breaks down quickly.
The development that can be mass-produced is the wrapping of the RNA molecule in a tiny lipid membrane that stabilizes the molecule.
After the vaccine is injected, the RNA penetrates into cells in the body, which produce the S protein according to the encoding.
Our immune system recognizes the foreign protein and produces antibodies against it, thus creating an effective immune system for the corona.
The two companies that produce vaccines with this method are Pfizer and Modern.
The difference between the vaccines is in the way the RNA is packaged in the tiny lipid envelope.
In both cases the vaccine is injected into the muscle and two doses of the vaccine should be taken at a difference of about 4 weeks.
RNA molecules cannot integrate into the human genome and they break down after a few days.
Both companies presented very good data on the efficacy of the vaccine in humans in third-phase studies (43,000 participated in a Pfizer study and 30,000 in a modern company trial).
In both cases the vaccine effectiveness in preventing short-term infection with corona was very high and stood at 94-95%.
We do not know what the long-term efficacy will be, and further impulse injections may be needed in the future, but preliminary findings are very encouraging.
Photo: Pfizer
But what is more important is the safety of the vaccine and this is actually the decisive factor in deciding whether to get vaccinated.
The safety data in the studies of Pfizer and Modern were excellent.
There were mild predictable side effects of local pain at the injection site, local fever, and sometimes also systemic fever.
There was no increased rate of significant side effects and no life-threatening side effects were observed.
From other vaccines we know that the vast majority of side effects are observed in the first two months after vaccination.
In particular immune side effects are observed after 3 to 6 weeks after vaccination.
Therefore, although the follow-up period in studies so far is short there is already a great deal of certainty about the safety profile.
The chance of late side effects is very small.
So I have no doubts - the only exit strategy that can really end the crisis is by vaccination and I will be the first in line to receive it.
Go get vaccinated too so we can get back to our good routine of life.
The author is the director of the Infectious Diseases Unit, Wolfson Medical Center and Tel Aviv University