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Senior Israeli health officials stated that the effectiveness of the second dose of Pfizer’s BioNTech vaccine weakened after six months.
Israel has begun to provide COVID-19 boosters to children as young as 12 years old, and its prime minister stated that a campaign for the elderly that began a month ago has slowed Serious illness on the rise Caused by the Delta variant.
In announcing the decision on Sunday, Israeli senior health officials stated that the effectiveness of the second dose of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine weakened after six months of administration, and therefore, a booster vaccination is needed.
Sharon Alroy-Preis, the head of public health at the Israeli Ministry of Health, said: “The third dose brought us to the level of protection achieved by the second dose. It was fresh at the time.”
“This means that after the third dose of the vaccine, people’s protection has increased tenfold,” she said at a press conference, expanding the strengthening plan.
Those who meet the criteria for the third injection can accept it, provided that at least five months have passed since the second injection-this time frame is shorter than the effective eight-month interval in the United States, which is considering shortening the waiting time.
In order to curb the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant, Israel began boosting its elderly population a month ago and gradually lowered the eligible age. Before the announcement on Sunday, the index was 30.
So far, out of a population of 9.3 million, 2 million have been vaccinated with three doses.
“The results are already there: the increase in severe morbidity has begun to slow,” Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a statement.
“But we have to complete the third dose for all of our citizens. I call on people 12 and older to go out and immediately take a third shot.”
Despite opposition from the World Health Organization, Israel and other countries continue to advance plans for strengthening. The organization stated that before people get the third dose, more people in the world should be given the first dose of the vaccine.
The United States said it will provide a booster dose to all Americans on the grounds that data shows weakening of protection. Canada, France and Germany have also planned booster campaigns.
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