Israel prelim data: Vaccine protects highly effectively against omicron

  The information received in Israel about the Omicron - the good andbad news: After Bennett's declaration of "state of emergency", in Israel tonight received preliminary data - both from South Africa and Europe - on the new variant that is causing concern around the world. The data revealed tonight (Tuesday) in the "main edition", shortly after being received in Israel, are preliminary - but indicate that the vaccine is still effective against the newly discovered mutations .

The data were collected in both South Africa and European countries where verifications were found in the new variant. It should be emphasized that these are preliminary data that the whole world is waiting for, and at this point they become the working assumption. According to these data, the effectiveness of the vaccine (for those who received three doses, ie also the booster), decreases only slightly: 90% protection, compared to 95% protection against the Delta strain. These are impressive and somewhat reassuring figures. The effectiveness of the vaccine in preventing serious illness, for those who have been vaccinated three times, is the same as the effectiveness against the Delta strain - the strain that has been the most dominant in Israel so far. 

But not everything is rosy: the problems start with the risk of recovering from being infected. The data show that the risk of recovering from infection is twice as high as in Delta, and the rate of infection is 1.3 times higher than in Delta. This rate of infection is very high: in South Africa there is talk that in 15 days the number of patients has increased 15 times. Although the numbers are low, the rate is problematic and worrying: in Israel there are many Israelis who are not vaccinated. 

Another worrying statistic has been revealed regarding the unvaccinated: their risk of becoming seriously ill is 2.4 times that of the original strain of the corona, the one that arrived in Israel nearly two years ago. In "unvaccinated" the reference is also to those vaccinated in two doses who are entitled to a booster and have not yet been vaccinated and therefore their protection is insufficient. Despite this news, the data is a reassuring siren when it comes to protecting vaccinated people from both serious illness and infection.

The test of the effectiveness of existing vaccines against the new variant was in its infancy, but Modern CEO Stefan Bensel managed to arouse global concern today when he said in an interview with the Financial Times that he expects a significant decline in vaccine efficacy.

But Bensel spoke of a decline in benefit from a disease with symptoms rather than a serious illness - a difference that is known to be dramatic in corona contexts as Pfizer CEO Albert Burla was apt to describe: Defense compared to Delta but that would be the limit. In both cases, the booster vaccines are expected to reduce the gap dramatically. "

Burla, who promised to know more about the benefits of the vaccine against the variant in about a week and a half, said Pfizer had already started developing a specific vaccine against the variant a few days ago. "We know the genetic linkage of the virus, we have it - that's how it starts," he explained. "We started, at risk, to produce a vaccine. We actually started on Friday to produce a vaccine based on the flooring, the DNA template, that would allow us to make RNA that would eventually women within that vaccine."

Israel, meanwhile, is waiting for a more categorical statement from the two CEOs, and meanwhile relies on data coming from South Africa - where the variant was first discovered - and from which it appears that the omicron is more contagious but is no more violent.

"Data on the benefits of the vaccine - there may be some partial data from South Africa," Dr. Sharon Elrai-Price, head of public health services, said today during a debate in the Knesset. "I hope we will have the answer to that in today's conversation. I know they are doing the lab tests as I described to see how useful the vaccine against this variant is. "

At the same time, the government is today approving a memorandum of law that will allow it to extend the decision to allow the GSS to verify the cellular devices of those infected with Omicron or the suspects who were infected with it with high probability - in order to interrupt the transmission chains as quickly as possible.

But just before the move reaches the Knesset, the coalition itself is sharply critical of the law. Prime Minister Bennett - who saw for himself how in the ministers' WhatsApp groups Ministers Saar, Shasha-Bitton, Barbibai and Avidar voted against - told today why Israel decided to include the GSS in the campaign despite, and perhaps because it is a low number of infected.

"There is a lot of uncertainty and that is why we are taking these extreme measures," he said in a video call with Austrian Chancellor Alexander Schlenberg. "But our advantage, as leaders, is that once we know more, when there is more information - we can let go of those measures, gradually." As for the restrictions at Ben Gurion Airport, the prime minister has already decided that these will last about two weeks from the date of their decision - and only if the final proof does come that the variant does not endanger the population's immunity or the omicron is already spread in the community - these restrictions will be removed.

https://www.mako.co.il/news-lifestyle/2021_q4/Article-0e660b77fe17d71027.htm