Fauci Lauds Israel For Vaccine Drive, Says Country Is ‘Way Up There’ In Vaccination

Appreciating the Israeli government’s vaccine drive at a press briefing on Wednesday, US Government expert on infectious diseases- Dr. Anthony Fauci, cited Israel’s inoculation campaign as proof of the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines while also noting the significant drop in cases due to it.

Stressing upon the importance of administering vaccines at a faster pace, citing the best example- that of Israel- Dr. Fauci explained that the Israeli inoculation drive may show how vaccines can have a societal effect in reducing the impact of COVID-19. He said the data shows that the vaccines both protect individuals and have “very important implications from a public health standpoint, for interfering and diminishing the dynamics of the outbreak.”

Source: The Times of Israel

“When you look at the [number of] vaccinations per 100 people… Israel is way up there with 78 doses per 100 people, compared to the United States, which has 16.7 doses per 100 people,” Fauci told the media via video conference. “So we have been hearing and seeing in the press that Israel has a remarkable diminution in cases associated with the efficiency of their vaccine.”

With Israel’s massive vaccine drive currently in place, making it a forerunner in the world, two studies have found the administered vaccines to be highly effective- hence leading to a good drop in cases in the Middle Eastern country. A massive study by Israel’s largest health provider Clalit found that the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is 94 percent effective in preventing symptomatic COVID-19, and 92% effective in averting serious cases of the disease. Another study that was reported on Wednesday by the Maccabi health maintenance organization showed vaccine effectiveness at 95 percent, the exact rate anticipated by Pfizer in its clinical trials. Maccabi also said that of 602,000 vaccinated individuals, only 608 have been infected, and none have died.

Source: Deccan Herald

“The effectiveness of the vaccine in Israel is stable and high. We clearly see very low morbidity rates among the group of young people who were vaccinated as early as seven days after the first dose of the vaccine,” said Maccabi statistics analyst Anat Ekka Zohar. “We again call on the entire population over the age of 16 to hurry up and get vaccinated, adults and young people alike. The data proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that this is the most effective way to defeat the pandemic,” she added.