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The fourth dose is insufficient to prevent the spread of omicron, according to an Israeli study

2022-01-18T18:55:26.001Z


More than half a million people have already received the new booster injection in Israel An Israeli receives the fourth dose of the Pfizer vaccine, on the 11th in Jerusalem. DPA via Europa Press (Europa Press) The preliminary results of a study carried out among the health personnel of the Sheba Medical Center, in the Tel Aviv area (Israel), suggest that the second booster injection, with a fourth dose of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, is insufficient to prevent contagion with the


An Israeli receives the fourth dose of the Pfizer vaccine, on the 11th in Jerusalem. DPA via Europa Press (Europa Press)

The preliminary results of a study carried out among the health personnel of the Sheba Medical Center, in the Tel Aviv area (Israel), suggest that the second booster injection, with a fourth dose of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, is insufficient to prevent contagion with the omicron variant of the coronavirus. Israel, which a year ago was a pioneer in vaccination against covid-19, has also been one of the first countries to offer, over the last month, a fourth inoculation, which has already received nearly 560,000 people (6 % of the population) older than 60 years, immunosuppressed or employed in health and social services.

Presented on Monday afternoon, the first known study on the fourth dose has been endorsed by the Israeli Ministry of Health. It stands out that its application increases the levels of antibodies, even above the third injection, and shows a high effectiveness of protection against the alpha and delta variants. However, it has not prevented infection by omicron in people who had recently received a second booster vaccination.

The announcement of the preliminary results of the Israeli clinical trial comes after the health authorities of the European Union warned that too frequent application of extra injections can compromise the response of the immune system. The World Health Organization also insists that countries postpone booster vaccination programs until the majority of the planet's population has the initial inoculation. Two thirds of the 9.5 million Israelis have received at least two doses and more than half already have a third, or first booster, on their vaccination certificate.

The director of research and head of the infectious diseases service at the Sheba Center, Gili Regev-Yochay, specified that the study, still pending final review and publication, has been carried out among 154 hospital health workers who had received the fourth Pfizer injection and another 120 inoculated again with Moderna's vaccine, as well as an equivalent control group not revaccinated. "The fourth dose does not seem enough to stop the omicron variant," said Dr. Regev-Yochay, quoted by the Hebrew press, "and, from what we know so far, the level of antibodies required to be protected against infection by ómicron is presumably too high for both vaccines.”

The Israeli clinical trial indicates that only limited protection against infection by omicron is achieved after receiving the fourth dose, but also notes that those infected during the study have presented mild symptoms of the disease or none at all. The director of the investigation has supported the application of a second extra inoculation against covid to the most vulnerable people, although without extending it to the entire population for now, since it is only shown to be “partially effective against the omicron variant, which it seems relatively resistant to the vaccine.” Regev-Yochay was also in favor of revising the age range at which to offer the fourth dose and limiting it to the oldest age groups.

Despite the initial data from the Sheba Medical Center study, the director general of the Ministry of Health, Nachman Ash, reported on Tuesday that Israel is going to continue with the vaccination campaign with a fourth dose. "The protection against serious morbidity that booster injection offers is important, especially for the older population and risk groups," said Ash, a medical doctor specializing in public health. "We hope that in a week the number of infections will begin to drop, although there are still two or three difficult weeks ahead," said the ministry's top medical officer.

Like most developed countries, Israel has been giving constant rudder changes in the strategy against covid since the global spread of the omicron variant was known in November. In just one week, the duration of the mandatory quarantine for those who present a positive result in the detection tests has been cut from 10 to seven days, first, and only five, starting last Monday. Contagions are multiplying daily among tens of thousands of Israelis, but only fifty patients in serious condition, most of them unvaccinated, remain hospitalized in the covid floors of hospitals.

Israel closed its borders to non-resident foreigners at the end of November, in an attempt to prevent the arrival of travelers infected with the new variant, but fully reopened them (for vaccinated tourists) in early January after confirming the massive spread of omicron .

The Government has chosen not to impose confinements or strict restrictions to avoid a further deterioration of the economy, but it maintains in force the requirement of the covid passport to access public places and leisure and sports centers.

Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett visits the Sheba Medical Center on the 4th in Tel Aviv. Ohad Zweigenberg (AP)

Booster inoculation strategy

Analysts in the Hebrew press warn that after a rosary of lurching criteria throughout the pandemic, the population is confused and less and less willing to abide by the guidelines issued by the health authorities. Prime Minister Naftali Bennet's government has once again relied on the fourth dose to overcome the wave of the omicron variant, just as it did with the third dose just six months ago. The study of the Sheba Medical Center now comes to question their plans.

Those who speculated in recent weeks with applying a strategy of general contagion of the population in Israel in order to acquire a supposed herd immunity have crashed against the unusual virulence of omicron. As the epidemiologist Nadav Davidovitch, a member of the team of experts that advises the interministerial cabinet on covid, recently recalled in a virtual meeting with the foreign press in Jerusalem, “in Israel we are not going towards a model of massive contagion; If that were the case, we would not be carrying out hundreds of thousands of detection tests every day.”

“We test 5% of the population every day,” Bennett assured this Tuesday in his remote intervention before the World Economic Forum in Davos, “that is why we have such a high level of cases, not because there is a massive contagion.”

The Israeli government manages the forecast that between about a quarter and almost half of Israelis will have been infected after the passage of the omicron wave.

Source: elparis

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