Israel has rolled out the fastest Covid-19 vaccination campaign in the world, inoculating more than 55% of its population with at least one shot since late December. The small country -- with roughly nine million people, about the same as New York City -- is pushing to fully vaccinate most of its population by the end of March, but faces fresh challenges as it enters a new phase to convince vaccine holdouts.
While Israel's vaccination campaign is relatively simple compared with the mass mobilizations needed by countries such as the U.S. that have many more people spread over a greater sweep of geography, the effort offers some clear lessons.
Bring the Vaccines to the People
Israel has begun to transition away from its early efforts to deliver vaccines at large venues and clinics to mobile vaccination sites, aiming to make it easier for those sitting on the fence to get vaccinated. Health officials say they are hoping to reach those who aren't making the decision to seek the vaccine out but who aren't opposed to getting jabs if they are easily accessible.
Refine Administrative Acts
Israel's healthcare providers are reaching out early and often to those eligible to receive vaccines, via applications, text messages and websites. Some cities are also offering free food and even vouchers for alcoholic beverages in bars to entice people to vaccinate.
Israel, which is providing the vaccine free of charge to everyone, has also rolled out a green passport system that allows those who have been vaccinated to show a QR code on their cellphone to access gyms, hotels, bars, restaurants and other venues closed off to people who aren't vaccinated.
Reach Out to Minority Groups
Ahead of the vaccine rollout, public-health officials lobbied the country's minority groups that would be less disposed to take the vaccine: the ultraorthodox and Israel's Arab population, which together make up about 33% of the population.
Public-health officials met with ultraorthodox rabbis and leaders in Arab communities to get them to back the vaccination campaign. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made a special effort to visit Arab towns as part of his public-relations campaign.
Public-health officials traveled to ultraorthodox towns to meet with rabbis and dispatched Arabic speakers to Arab towns to meet with health professionals. They outlined all of the available information to indicate that the vaccine is safe and effective. They secured the signoff of the ultraorthodox leadership, which issued a statement urging anyone who could to get the vaccine.
Research Suggests One Shot Can Provide Robust Protection
The Pfizer vaccine is 85% effective in preventing symptomatic disease 15 to 28 days after being administered, according to a peer-reviewed study conducted by the Israeli government-owned Sheba Medical Center and published in the Lancet medical journal.
The study, which involved about 9,000 people, also found a 75% reduction in both symptomatic and asymptomatic infections after the first shot. The study was published as a correspondence, meaning it represents the views of the authors and not the Lancet.
Pfizer says its vaccine only reaches full effectiveness after two doses. It recommends that a second dose is administered 21 days after the first.
Early Data Suggests Significant Drop in Infections After Second Dose
Analysis from Israel released in early March by Israel's health ministry found that maximum protection from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE's Covid-19 vaccine kicked in at least two weeks after people received the second dose, and it held up even against a more transmissible variant.
The Israeli analysis of real-world use of the vaccine also showed that the shot was highly effective at preventing infections that don't cause symptoms, a sign that it could be helping to limit the spread of the virus. And the data indicated two doses were more protective than one.
An earlier study by Clalit, Israel's largest healthcare provider, showed a 94% drop in symptomatic Covid-19 infections among 600,000 people who received two doses of Pfizer's vaccine.
The vaccinated group was also 92% less likely to develop severe illness from the disease, according to the study. It compared 600,000 people who got the vaccine with a group of the same size and similar medical histories that didn't.
Clalit said the study, which was carried out with a team from Harvard University, included 430,000 people who were between 16 and 59 years of age, and 170,000 who were over 60. It was the first of its kind to show such a high level of efficacy for Pfizer's vaccine for those aged 70 and higher due to the limited scope of the clinical trials.
Separately, researchers at the central-Israel based Weizmann Institute found that in relation to previous lockdowns, hospitalizations and serious illness among those first vaccinated -- meaning those 60 and older -- dropped 48%, while deaths decreased 50% among that group. For those aged 55-60, the next most-vaccinated group, researchers found a 36% decrease in hospitalizations and 30% decrease in serious illness.
