The vaccine's third dose slows down delta variant, Israeli scientists say

Delta arrived in Israel in June, at a time when the country began reaping the fruits of the world's fastest vaccine campaign.

But with an open economy and the removal of restrictive measures, Israel passed from a digit number of newly infected and undead people last week to some 7,500 new cases a day, with 600 people in critical condition and more than 150 deaths a week.

On July 30th, the Middle East state began the third dose of Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine for people over 60 years, becoming the first country to do so.

On Thursday, Israel expanded this opportunity to the over 40-year-olds who took the last dose at least five months ago. It was announced that the age limit could be further reduced.

In the last ten days, the pandemic has slowed down in the first age group, in which more than a million residents received the third dose, the Israeli Health Ministry announced.

The level of infection among people vaccinated over 60 years old, the so-called reproductive number, began to decline on 13 August, and is now below 1, which means that pandemic is slowing down.

Scientists claim that the third dose contributes to this but perhaps other factors.

“Numrates are still very high, but this has changed to reduce the fastest increase in the number of infected and severe cases, as well as the speed at which the pandemic is spreading,” said Eran Segal, a data analyst at Weizmann University and an Israeli government adviser.

After reaching one of the highest levels of per capita infection in the world this month, the question is how Israel will emerge from the fourth wave of infection without restoring a total quarantine, which would be a blow to its economy.

Evidence is emerging that, although vaccine is very effective in preventing serious forms of the disease, its protection weakens over time, Reuters writes.

But there is no consensus between scientists and health agencies that a third dose is necessary, and the World Health Organization (OBSH) has said that the priority is to vaccinate the rest of the world, that is, countries where less than 1 to 2 percent have received doses before developing states start with the third dose.

The United States announced they would offer a third dose to all Americans eight months after taking the second dose, and the same was announced by Canada, France and Germany.

Almost a million Israelis out of a total of 9.3 million have not decided to be vaccinated, and children under 12 are not even allowed to.

Health officials announced on Thursday that they were registering a drop in immunity to the virus in persons under 40 years of age, though a small number of them developed a serious form of the disease.

Increasing the number of seriously ill persons among those vaccinated over 60 has been halted in the last 10 days

Doron Gazit, a member of the expert team for COVIID-19 at Hebrew University and government adviser, states that increasing the number of seriously ill persons among the vaccinated, over 60, has been halted in the last ten days.

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More than half of people over 60 received third doses, according to data from the Ministry of Health.

The number of serious cases among non-vaccinated people over 70 years of age is now seven times higher than among the vaccinated people, and that gap will continue to rise in line with the number of infected people, Gazit says, adding that in persons over 50, this report is four times higher.