..
In Israel as in elsewhere, it’s a Pandemic of the Unvaccinated.
..
..
..
https://twitter.com/sunsunykhmbs/status/1439703839175630848?s=19
..
..
Israel’s Unvaccinated 17% Now Account for Nearly Half of COVID Deaths
Over 3 million in Israel have now received the COVID booster shot
Sep. 17, 2021
The number of coronavirus patients in serious condition has remained stable, according to data released by Israel’s Health Ministry on Friday.
.
Meanwhile, more than 3 million people in Israel have received a third COVID shot, according to the Health Ministry.
.
There are 658 patients in serious condition, compared to 654 a day earlier. Unvaccinated Israelis – who account for 17 percent of the population eligible for a vaccine – make up about two-thirds of the total number of serious cases.
The difference is even more pronounced when booster shots are taken into account. In the over-60 age group, 222 of patients in serious condition are unvaccinated, while 101 have received two doses of the vaccine and 46 have received a booster shot. Among those under 60 who are in serious condition, 200 are unvaccinated, 49 have received two doses, and seven have received a booster shot.
The death toll has reached 7,465, with 703 people dying in the past month, 322 of them unvaccinated.
..
..
The New England Journal of Medicine
Protection of BNT162b2 Vaccine Booster against Covid-19 in Israel
List of authors.
- Yinon M. Bar-On, M.Sc.,
- Yair Goldberg, Ph.D.,
- Micha Mandel, Ph.D.,
- Omri Bodenheimer, M.Sc.,
- Laurence Freedman, Ph.D.,
- Nir Kalkstein, B.Sc.,
- Barak Mizrahi, M.Sc.,
- Sharon Alroy-Preis, M.D.,
- Nachman Ash, M.D.,
- Ron Milo, Ph.D.,
- and Amit Huppert, Ph.D.
September 15, 2021
Abstract
Background
On July 30, 2021, the administration of a third (booster) dose of the BNT162b2 messenger RNA vaccine (Pfizer–BioNTech) was approved in Israel for persons who were 60 years of age or older and who had received a second dose of vaccine at least 5 months earlier. Data are needed regarding the effect of the booster dose on the rate of confirmed coronavirus 2019 disease (Covid-19) and the rate of severe illness.
Methods
We extracted data for the period from July 30 through August 31, 2021, from the Israeli Ministry of Health database regarding 1,137,804 persons who were 60 years of age or older and had been fully vaccinated (i.e., had received two doses of BNT162b2) at least 5 months earlier. In the primary analysis, we compared the rate of confirmed Covid-19 and the rate of severe illness between those who had received a booster injection at least 12 days earlier (booster group) and those who had not received a booster injection (nonbooster group). In a secondary analysis, we evaluated the rate of infection 4 to 6 days after the booster dose as compared with the rate at least 12 days after the booster. In all the analyses, we used Poisson regression after adjusting for possible confounding factors.
Results
At least 12 days after the booster dose, the rate of confirmed infection was lower in the booster group than in the nonbooster group by a factor of 11.3 (95% confidence interval [CI], 10.4 to 12.3); the rate of severe illness was lower by a factor of 19.5 (95% CI, 12.9 to 29.5). In a secondary analysis, the rate of confirmed infection at least 12 days after vaccination was lower than the rate after 4 to 6 days by a factor of 5.4 (95% CI, 4.8 to 6.1).
Conclusions
In this study involving participants who were 60 years of age or older and had received two doses of the BNT162b2 vaccine at least 5 months earlier, we found that the rates of confirmed Covid-19 and severe illness were substantially lower among those who received a booster (third) dose of the BNT162b2 vaccine.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMoa2114255
..
..
weehingthong 