Israel is arguably the most studied nation of the pandemic, and the data signals now emerging are extremely worrisome. Along with its sky-high triple and quadruple vaccination rates, Israel has been the most data-rich environment of this pandemic with a relatively small, densely packed population, a sophisticated health system, and, most importantly, a world-class medical research infrastructure replete with highly qualified investigators and scientists.
The country has also been a focal point of apex research institutes and academic medical centers in the United States. Israel’s COVID-19 policy choices and research findings ripple across the rest of the world.
It was in Israel, for example, where researchers observed the waning of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna mRNA-based vaccines due to more virulent and transmissible variants of SARS-CoV-2, including delta and omicron.
Israel was also the first to implement a third booster shot, and several months later, a fourth booster (and controversially, some high-profile health leaders even discussed a fifth booster).
The pandemic started in this eastern Mediterranean nation back in April 2020 and the vaccination process started December 19, 2020.
Based on Ministry of Health data, TrialSite has reported that vaccination has led to reductions in severe infection and mortality, but it didn’t stop viral transmission, contrary to early pronouncements.
The third booster wave started in August 2021 during the worst delta-driven COVID-19 surge, and by early October, just under 40% of the population had received a third booster, mostly elderly individuals deemed at risk and immunocompromised.
Cases momentarily declined but shot up again in a distributing pattern, this time with a highly transmissible omicron variant. All infection records were shattered, and the death toll climbed.
Meanwhile, little coverage of this critical news made it past America’s pro-vaccine news media gauntlet. Few asked, based on the alarming data emerging from Israel’s highly vaccinated population: was the great COVID-19 vaccination experiment in Israel failing?
Magnitude of the Situation
The still-mounting fifth wave threatens to overtake the third wave, previously the deadliest.
By January 1, 2022, 46.2% of the entire population had received a third booster of the Pfizer-BioNTech Comirnaty yet the infections exploded due to omicron, seemingly a milder variant of concern. Despite the continuous public health message that vaccination would curtail the most severe disease and death, the death toll mounted during the past five weeks.
According to the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 Data Repository by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE), one death associated with COVID-19 was reported on January 1, 2022. By January 30, 2022, fatalities associated with COVID-19 hit 80 in one day. Two days later, the ministry reported 121 deaths as omicron, a milder variant, triggered a dangerous trajectory.
Just four days ago, Israeli press such as the Times of Israel announced the record infections, high positive test rates of just under 30% nationwide yet the Times of Israel avoided the more controversial topic—a near-record surge in mortality.
Why were so many people dying in such a highly vaccinated—and boosted—population? What was the breakdown of these deaths? While the nation’s “coronavirus czar” Salman Zarka emphasized the nation’s dwindling unvaccinated population, he carefully avoided any critical vetting of the vaccine product itself. Was the vaccine failing against this new variant? That the mRNA-based vaccine effects waned against new variants of concern wasn’t new.
TrialSite reported in August 2020 that with delta, 90% of the hospitalized were vaccinated in at least one hospital. Of course, this was partially explained by the fact that most of the population was vaccinated. The leadership of that hospital quickly responded to TrialSite, reporting that the booster program was working.
In a recent piece in the Times of Israel, the health ministry continued to emphasize the upside of the vaccine, declaring, “Serious cases were much more common among the unvaccinated.”
According to Israeli Ministry of Health data, for the population of 60 years and above, serious cases occurred at 416.6 per 100,000 in unvaccinated as opposed to 35.9 for the vaccinated.
But what about deaths? The press and ministry aren’t sharing those numbers, at least not yet.
What about other hospitalization numbers by other age groups? Israel is now experiencing record hospitalization rates due to SARS-CoV-2. Suddenly, when it matters, information in the world’s most advanced, data-rich COVID pandemic site is hard to come by. Why is that?
With such a high infection rate over the past several weeks, hospitals have been pushed to their edge. Dr. Ariel Rokach at Shaare Zedek Medical Center shared with the Times of Israel that even though omicron represents a less virulent strain of COVID-19, its transmissibility makes the sheer number of infections lead to horrible outcomes.
Rokach cautioned that vaccination was important, declaring, “It’s true that the vaccine isn’t so effective in preventing infection, but we see that it makes a big difference in preventing severe disease.” He continued “We’re really lucky that most of the population took vaccinations, and I think this is the reason omicron is not causing many more cases of severe disease.”
Thankfully, infections appear on a downward trajectory as of February 10, 2022. By February 9, the seven-day new daily case average was 39,870. Reported deaths remain disturbingly high for this small nation of just under 9 million people. That same day, 59 persons died due to COVID-19 based on the seven-day case average. Hospitalization rates hit their all-time high on February 5th at 3,457. The breakdown of hospitalization by all age cohorts and vaccination status aren’t available as of yet.
Moving Forward
Despite record-high caseloads, in an acknowledgment of their failure to impact omicron’s transmissibility or virulence, Israel decided last week to drop its vaccine passport. Why was the American press, which was so supportive of U.S. vaccine passes after Israel’s initial implementation of Green Cards, so quiet on this topic?
Also, given the marketed benefits of mRNA -based vaccines—their flexibility, adeptness and efficiency—why hasn’t Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna updated their products for the more dangerous variants?
The current vaccines are designed to take on the original wildtype SARS-CoV-2 only. Is the omicron variant, in fact, “the fall of vaccines”? In light of credible theories that this is a manmade virus and failing vaccine efficacy against what may be a manmade virus, should we attribute our rescue from the virus to nature’s mercy rather than our vaunted multinational pharmaceutical complex?
Objectively just how good are these mRNA-based vaccines now that we have the data? What is their real impact on rates of death, hospitalization, and severe illness? Why have so many vaccinated persons become infected? Given the economics of the vaccine—Pfizer reported over $30 billion in their first year (although they are forecasting a negative adjustment with new risks associated with the product) and onerous contractual terms, what have Israel and other nations learned about negotiations with pharmaceutical companies? What do we do about the apparent regulatory capture of national and global health agencies revealed during this pandemic?
This media raises the important but unpopular mainstream question about early treatment using repurposed drugs.
Two years into the pandemic, the vast overwhelming allocation of taxpayer dollars went to advanced, exotic vaccines and novel (and expensive) therapies. What about the physicians on the front lines who sought out repurposed drugs to treat people early on? Why were they systematically ostracized, disparaged as “fringe” and punished? Those who have spoken against evidently inadequate public health responses were cut off from the mainstream and made victims of censorship and bans on various social media. In the United States and other nations, physicians critical of mandated vaccine requirements and proponents of off-label treatments were targeted by medical boards and stripped of licensure to practice, they were prey to professional ad hominem attacks and forced resignations from employers for not following federalized “Guidelines Therapy.”
In light of the data now emerging from Israel, what lessons have been learned and how can humanity progress beyond this historic tragedy of our own making?