What is vaccine in israel?

Question

Chiara Wilzbach · Answer

Israel's COVID-19 vaccination programme, officially named "Give a Shoulder" (Hebrew: לתת כתף), began on 19 December 2020, and has been praised for its speed, having given twenty percent of the Israeli population the first dose of the vaccines' two dose regimen in the span of three weeks. As of June 26, 2021, about 64% of eligible Israelis have received at least one dose. Coordinated vaccination drives by the country's health authorities, utilizing databases of personal information for Israeli patients, contributed to Israel's success in vaccinating a high proportion of its population in a short period of time, relative to the rest of the world. According to a September 2021 study published in The Lancet, COVID-19 vaccination in Israel prevented an additional 158,665 infections, 24,597 hospitalisations, 17,432 severe or critical hospitalisations, and 5,532 deaths from December 20, 2020, to April 10, 2021. Many factors contributed to the quick distribution of vaccines in the state of Israel. Israel's population is younger on average than many other developed countries, with 12% of its population over the age of 65. (→ Demographics of Israel) Israel is smaller in land area than many other developed nations. It has a comparatively small population of about 9.3 million people and a high population density (424/km2).
Israel's organized response in terms of attaining, storing and distributing vaccines was considered to be overall well coordinated. This is in part owed to the centralized nature of Israel's government system, which for example does not defer many health policy decisions to lower state-level bodies of government. The state purchased a substantial amount of Pfizer–BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines relative to its population as early as December 2020. In May 2020, the state secured agreements with companies which were developing vaccines, such as Moderna. Early into the programme, Israel provided Pfizer with medical information about its citizens as part of a deal for the country to receive a supply COVID-19 vaccines from the company. The initial campaign for vaccinations focused on the elderly (people over the age of 60) and other patient groups with a high risk of severe illness in the case of infection, such as those with preexisting conditions, as well as employees of the healthcare sector. After eight weeks, nearly 85% of health workers at a hospital in Jerusalem (Hadassah Hebrew University Medical Center) were vaccinated. Israel started its campaign on 19 December 2020, with prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu being the first person in the country to receive the vaccine, getting injected on live TV to encourage other Israelis to get vaccinated. In less than two weeks, over 10% of Israelis received their first dose. Mass vaccination in Israel has produced evidence that the Pfizer vaccine works to stop transmission of the virus, including asymptomatic infections. The vaccination programme has also curbed deaths in the country. As of early February 2021, at least 90% of Israelis over the age of 60 received at least one dose of the Pfizer vaccine, and there was a 41% drop in confirmed infections in the country compared with the previous month. By late February, at least 4.8 million Israelis received at least one dose. This mass vaccination led to a drop in severe COVID-19 cases. Israel passed a law allowing government workers to identify and contact those who have not been vaccinated, in order to convince them to do so. To access certain locations such as gyms, hotels, and theatres, immunized residents show a green pass (also known as a "green badge"), which was officially introduced by the Israeli Ministry of Health on February 21. The green pass indicates the holder is immunized against COVID-19, either by vaccination or previous infection. People who have received both doses of a COVID-19 vaccine are eligible to receive this certificate of vaccination. It expires after six months. As of March 2021, Israel has the highest vaccinated population per capita in the world. About 60% of residents in Israel received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine by March, and certain public places reopened access for those who were vaccinated. Only about 100,000 residents over the age of 50 remained unvaccinated. By March, at least 50% of the Israeli population had received both doses of the Pfizer vaccine. The perceived success of Israel's vaccination programme has been credited to the centralized systems its health maintenance organizations maintained, especially with regard to managing the personal health data of Israelis. They were able to coordinate national vaccination drives, contacting residents directly using a database of contact information such as phone numbers and emails. Every Israeli citizen must register with one of the country's four HMOs. On 10 November 2021, the Israeli Government approved the use of COVID-19 vaccine shots for children between the ages of 5 and 11 years. Israeli epidemiologists and health authorities have identified vaccine hesitancy among parents as an obstacle to getting children vaccinated. On 22 December 2021, an Israeli government panel recommended a fourth dose for the elderly and immunocompromised population. On 5 January 2022, Israeli President Isaac Herzog launched the fourth COVID-19 vaccination campaign, receiving his second booster at Hadassah Ein Kerem and urging Israeli citizens to get vaccinated against the omicron variant. Data from the national campaign showed there to be a strong effect of waning immunity from the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine after 6 months. On 29 July 2021, Israel's Prime Minister announced that the country was rolling out a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine to people over the age of 60, based on the data that suggested significant waning immunity from infection over time for those with two doses. The country expanded the availability to all Israelis over the age of 12, after five months since their second shot. On 29 August 2021, Israel's coronavirus czar announced that Israelis who had not received a booster shot within six months of their second dose would lose access to the country's green pass vaccine passport. Israeli authorities faced problems with distributing their supply of COVID-19 vaccines early into vaccination drives. This included trouble with scheduling appointments, loosely interpreted eligibility early on which led to supply problems, and lack of sufficient distribution to less populated villages and Arab-Israeli communities. During the first quarter of 2021, Israel had to address a moderate amount of vaccine hesitancy in its general population, and also address more intense pockets of vaccine hesitancy among young adults and religious/cultural minority groups. The challenges were addressed via a mix of messaging, incentives, extensions to the initial vaccine delivery system, and other measures. Many of the measures addressed the general population, while others were targeted at subgroups with below-average vaccination rates. Once the early adopters had been vaccinated, it took hard, creative work to increase population coverage from 40 to 60% and beyond. Distribution of vaccines to Palestinians has not been as thorough as to Israeli citizens. In early March, the supply of COVID-19 vaccines was not sufficient to cover all of its healthcare workers. Until March, when Israel began vaccinating Palestinian laborers with the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine, the Palestinian Authority received only enough doses for about 6,000 people. Gaza has a population of about 2 million, by comparison. United Nations officials called for more support for vaccinating Palestinians, and praised Israel's assistance in this regard, while Amnesty International expressed concern that Israel had not done more for Palestinians with regard to the COVID-19 pandemic. Some Israeli health officials urged the government to provide vaccinations to all Palestinians. According to Business Insider, Israeli citizens of any origin as well as Palestinian residents in East Jerusalem were eligible for the vaccine, with people older than 60, healthcare workers, and the "especially vulnerable" being prioritized. However, an estimated five million Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza (which are not under Israeli control) were not eligible as their healthcare is under the jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority per the Oslo Accords. By late March, Israel vaccinated more than 100,000 Palestinian laborers. In June 2021, Israel announced it would give over 1 million soon-to-expire Pfizer vaccines to the Palestinian Authority in exchange for a later reimbursement of a similar amount of vaccines which the Palestinian Authority expects to receive from Pfizer in the first quarter of 2022. In June 18, 100,000 of these doses had already been transferred to the West Bank's Palestinian Health Ministry. However, the Palestinian Authority soon pulled out of the exchange deal, saying the doses expired too fast. As of March 2021, Haredi Jews and Arab-Israelis had a lower rate of vaccination, compared to other sections of the population in Israel. These demographics were also comparatively more likely to be hesitant or skeptical about taking the vaccine. Haredi Jews are about 12% of Israel's population. Almost 100,000 (or about 2% of vaccinated Israelis) did not receive their second dose after their first dose. According to officials from Israel's Ministry of Health, two contributing factors to a reluctance to receive the second dose are misinformation and a fear of side effects. Compared to the original speed at which vaccines were being administered, vaccinations in Israel have slowed, according to the Ministry of Health.

Rehaman lvmpelr Kainat · Answer

Description
Israel's COVID-19 vaccination programme, officially named "Give a Shoulder", began on 19 December 2020, and has been praised for its speed, having given twenty percent of the Israeli population the first dose of the vaccines' two dose regimen in the span of three weeks. Wikipedia

Ritch Spearritt · Answer

For the most recent figures on the vaccination rate in Israel >

Additional information on vaccine types and how they work >

Vaccination will be available at the HMOs. It is recommended to check with your HMO In which clinic you can get vaccinated, and arrange an appointment in advance.

Those who are not registered to a HMO should contact the hotline at *5400.

Information on vaccines for toddlers age 6 months to 5 years old >

Information on vaccines for children and teens age 5 to 18 years old >

Anyone aged 12 and older - The vaccine will be administered in two doses spaced 21 days apart, and after at least three months they will receive the booster dose.

Anyone aged 18 and older - The vaccine will be administered in two doses spaced 28 days apart, and after at least three months they will receive the booster dose.

Anyone aged 18 and older - The vaccine will be administered in two doses spaced 28 days apart. The booster dose has not been approved yet.

immunocompromised individuals from age 12 - two subsequent injections.

Information on the number of doses for toddlers ages 6 months to 5 years >

Information on the number of doses for children and teens ages 5 to 18 years >

Anyone aged 12 and older - The vaccine will be administered in two doses, with an interval of 21 days between the first and second doses. This vaccine can be given as a booster dose to those who have received two or three doses of a non-Novavax vaccine. The third dose has not been approved yet.

Over the next few days the HMOs will begin to vaccinate with a vaccine compatible with the Omicron variants, of the Pfizer company. The new vaccine is expected to provide a more significant protection from these variants, and possibly for a longer period of time.

Anyone aged 12 and older can be vaccinated in the following cases:

• Those who have been vaccinated twice or more with the original variants, and at least 3 months have passed since the last vaccination.• Those who have recovered from COVID and at least 3 months have passed since the date of recovery.• Those who have recovered from COVID and are vaccinated, and at least 3 months have passed since the date of the last vaccination or the recovery.

Please note, there is no combined vaccine against COVID and flu, and these are two different vaccines. It is possible to get vaccinated at the clinic with both vaccines.

• Those aged 65 and older• At-risk Groups• Medical teams• Patients and workers in "Magen Avot veImahot" institutions• Patients and workers in Ministry of Welfare institutions• Caregivers of individuals who belong to high risk groups

Common side effects of COVID-19 vaccines usually start within one or two days after vaccination. Common side effects include pain at the injection site, fever, headaches, muscle pain, and chills.

Report possible side effects >

Jakob Dowling · Answer

Israel’s MOH also determined (on December 16) that the initial target groups for vaccination would be people aged 60 and over, nursing home residents, other people at high risk due to serious medical conditions, and front-line health care workers . The responsibility for vaccinating each of these groups was also clearly defined at that time:

As indicated in Fig. 1, the number of people vaccinated per day began at approximately 8000 on December 20, quickly rose to over 70,000 by December 24, decreased over the following weekend, and then rose to over 150,000 by December 29.Footnote 4 All of the vaccines administered in Israel during 2020 were those manufactured by Pfizer, and the vast majority of vaccines were administered by nurses.

At the same time, not all was well with the COVID-19 situation in Israel in December 2020, Israel – like many other countries – was experiencing a major increase in COVID-19 infections , including substantial morbidity among health care professionals. Thus, the vaccination campaign was launched at a very challenging time for Israeli health care.

In addition, the vaccination campaign experienced labor pains of its own. During the first few days of the rollout, it was quite difficult to schedule an appointment via the health plans’ call centers or digital tools. In some vaccination sites, not enough people in the target population showed up, and at the end of each day vaccines about to pass their expiration time had to be either thrown away or given to people not meeting criteria for first-round vaccinations. Even earlier in the day, some hospitals, health plans and other vaccine providers were somewhat lax about limiting vaccines to people meeting the official criteria, thereby increasing the total number of people vaccinated, but reducing the supply of vaccines available to the elderly and other at-risk groups. At some vaccination sites, family of health professionals and members of influential unions or occupations, were vaccinated even though they did not meet the criteria. And, while vaccination sites were set up throughout the country, including in the peripheral regions and in smaller villages and towns, the rate of vaccine uptake was markedly lower than average in Arab localities.

Moreover, as of December 2020 there were many uncertainties looking forward. There was lack of clarity about when the next vaccine shipments would arrive and how large they would be , leading to talk about a possible temporary suspension of first vaccinations (though Israel has been careful to set aside a second dose for all Israelis and foreign workersFootnote 5 who received a first dose). It was also not clear what proportion of Israelis would ultimately sign-up for vaccinations, either due to general anti-Vax sentiments or to vaccine hesitancy specific to the new COVID-19 vaccines. In addition, it was not clear how the need to allocate nurses to the vaccination effort was affecting the delivery of other health services. And, as was the case worldwide, there continued to be uncertainties about how long the vaccine-conferred immunity would last, how effective it would be against new variants of the virus, and the extent to which it prevents transmission.

Umar Sagar · Answer