The omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 rages now through the eastern Mediterranean nation of Israel as the reported number of cases hit a COVID-19 pandemic record of 17,362 new infections on Monday, January 5th. As TrialSite just reported, a fourth booster program commences, targeting higher risk demographics such as the elderly and immunocompromised. This sweeping contagion, while seemingly milder in symptoms, demonstrates the limitations of the mass vaccination to eradicate SARS-CoV-2 strategy in this heavily vaccinated nation driven by a confluence of elite medical establishment officials and executives in regulatory agencies, national and international public health authorities, elite academic medical centers, and industry not to mention financiers and investors monetizing the pandemic and influential not-for-profits. TrialSite shared with community members that by October and November of last year, based on Israel Health Ministry data that the unvaccinated still faced a higher risk for severe infection, but we also reported on striking numbers of breakthrough infections leading to hospitalization. One Sheba Medical Center study opens up a Moderna arm—are there some underlying seeds of doubt concerning Pfizer-BioNTech’s BNT162b2?
The good news is that despite historically high infections, the death rate is very low, at least thus far, based on data from the COVID-19 Data Repository by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) at Johns Hopkins University. TrialSite cannot be certain what’s behind the lower death rate but more than likely, a confluence of factors from vaccination and growing natural immunity to the milder mutant could be an explanation. So, in that way, mass vaccine proponents will claim that the products made the pandemic milder but a fundamental underlying assumption for what is now hundreds of billions worldwide spent on vaccine-supporting programs was very much centered on pathogen eradication—something the vaccine products are failing to address. TrialSite reminds all that, worldwide, nearly 5.5 million Covid deaths are recorded. Many critical care physicians have argued all along that off-label use of a handful of repurposed drugs could have saved many lives.
Out of Control
Sharon Alroy-Preis, the nation’s top public health official, told Channel 13, “There is no control of the Omicron wave.” The health minister continued, “Probably no one is protected from infection,” reports the president of Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.
Goal: Keep Economy Open
Avoidance of economic pain and suffering becomes a top goal of governments across the West as the realities of the situation settle in—meaning the transition to an endemic stage and learning to live with the SARS-CoV-2 pathogen. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett declared at a recent press conference, “It’s a different ball game altogether.”
Let the Boosts Begin
Regardless of vaccine limitation, the fourth boost program accelerates full throttle. Israel21c reports thousands started last week getting their fourth booster shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech mRNA-based vaccine since the government authorized use for healthcare workers, the elderly, and immunocompromised. The rationale for the decision? Protect the vulnerable from the imminent omicron wave. The decision was made prior to an important Sheba Medical Center study investigating the impact of a fourth dose on 150 employees at the academic medical center.
Israeli media reports that all those subjects that received three Pfizer-BioNTech doses five or more months ago now don’t have sufficient antibodies to respond to SARS-CoV-2.
Concern with Pfizer-BioNTech Vaccine?
Interestingly, in this Sheba Medical Center study, led by the director of the Infectious Disease Epidemiology Unit, the study now expands, and a hospital spokesperson told Israel21c that they will embrace the Moderna mRNA-based vaccine on a separate group of study subjects. They will test if mRNA-1273 has a superior impact to resist omicron in healthcare workers that have already received three Pfizer-BioNTech doses.