When talking about the need to promote the fourth dose of the new crown vaccine a few days ago, Zhang Wenhong, director of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Huashan Hospital affiliated to Fudan University in Shanghai, said that israel's experience can be learned. He said: "Recently, Israel and Singapore are laying out the fourth shot of play, and the mainland will also consider the fourth dose of vaccination in the future." ”
In January, Israel, which was riding the pack on vaccination, once again took the lead in the world to begin providing a fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine to people over the age of 60. But unlike the first three doses of the vaccine, the fourth dose was controversial from the start, and many, including experts, did not think it was necessary.
With the fourth dose of vaccination in Europe and the United States, more scientists have joined the debate. But the latest news from Israel could help ease the debate. An Israeli study showed that for the elderly or immunodeficient population, the fourth dose is not only useful, but also life-saving: compared with three doses, the fourth dose of the vaccine has a 78% lower mortality rate.
Song Jing, a resident scientist at the Benaroya Research Institute in the United States and a doctor of immunology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel, told the first financial reporter that ordinary people may not need to get a fourth dose, but for the elderly who need key protection, the fourth dose is crucial.
Reduce mortality among the elderly
Arnon Gutfeld, an 82-year-old professor emeritus at Tel Aviv University in Israel, told First Financial Reporter that when the Israeli Ministry of Health announced the start of the fourth dose in January, he rushed to get vaccinated. He said that the acceptance of the fourth dose among the elderly in Israel is now very high, and many people have received the fourth dose.
The latest available data also supports his view, with Professor Gutfeld saying he was pleased to see that older Israelis had made the right choice. Clalit, Israel's largest health service agency, in conjunction with other research institutes, recently announced that after a follow-up survey of 560,000 elderly people over the age of 60, it was found that compared with those who received only three doses of the vaccine, the mortality rate of the elderly after receiving the fourth dose of the vaccine was significantly reduced by 78%.
The study surveyed 560,000 elderly people with a median age of 73 years and 53 percent of women. Of these, 330,000 were given a fourth dose and 92 died (due to COVID-19), while 232 died of 235,000 people who did not receive the fourth dose as a control.
Ronen Arbel, a researcher at Sapir College who led the study, said the study's main conclusion was that a fourth dose of the vaccine could save lives. While it is difficult to estimate how many people the fourth dose will save globally, he said, Israel alone could save hundreds of lives.
In January, Israel ranked first in the world with a per capita infection rate of 0.6% per day, and the elderly were fully exposed to the risk of contracting the new crown virus. This situation also increases the credibility of the study.
Due to the spread characteristics of the Omiljung strain and Israel's easing of epidemic control, there have been 3.88 million cases of infection in Israel's population of more than 9 million people. According to the epidemic data released by the Ministry of Health on the 28th, there were 9,857 new confirmed cases of new coronavirus in the country in the past 24 hours. The cumulative number of deaths was 10,485.
Albert stressed that because the Aumechjong strain is more contagious, the fourth dose may not be satisfactory in preventing infection, but it is effective in preventing severe cases and deaths.
He suggested that other countries could start considering a fourth dose of immunizing vulnerable groups. But he also pointed out that the problem of unfair distribution of vaccines around the world remains unresolved, and many places have not yet had the conditions to promote third or fourth doses.
According to a March 17 study at Israel's Sheba Medical Center, the fourth dose of the vaccine has "minimal" efficacy against the coronavirus.
Dr. GiliRegev-Yochay, director of infection prevention and control at Sheba Medical Center, said that of about 600 trial participants, 270 received a fourth dose of the Pfizer or Modena vaccine. Both the level of immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibody and the level of neutralizing antibodies in their bodies were basically similar to the levels measured one month after the third dose of vaccination.
This result shows that for healthy young people who have received three doses of the vaccine, the fourth dose of the vaccine is not significantly effective, and only acts as a "mild protection" against symptomatic infections.
The battle for the fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccine
Just on March 28, Israeli Prime Minister Bennett announced confirmation of COVID-19 infection. However, this news did not cause waves, the first financial reporter consulted the Israeli mainstream media on the same day, this news not only did not make headlines, but also did not reflect on the first screen of the web page.
Ms. Rifka, who lives in Israel, told the first financial reporter that in fact, there are not many friends around her who have not been infected with the new crown, and she has seen the condition of the people around her, so everyone is not worried.
In Israel, more than 6.7 million people have been vaccinated against at least one dose of COVID-19, and the country's third dose has now reached 56.7%. Bennett has also received three doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.
There was a lot of debate about whether to take the fourth dose, in Israel, which took the first step, and even the Israeli Ministry of Health was a little hesitant at first.
On 22 December 2021, the Israeli Ministry of Health Expert Advisory Group recommended a fourth dose of COVID-19 vaccination for people over the age of 60 and medical staff, with the fourth dose needing to be more than 4 months away from the third dose.
Advisory panel member Galia Rahav said the decision was not easy because there were no complete data on the immune effects of the fourth dose, "it's the same as when the third dose was launched, but at the same time, the global outbreak data is terrible." If you don't act immediately, you'll miss out on board. A research paper in the journal Immunity at the time showed that the fourth dose may not be as great as the first and second doses of immunity.
Eyal Leshem, an infectious disease specialist at Israel's Sheba Medical Center, also said that in the long run, two or three doses of the NEW CROWN vaccine will provide most people with good protection against severe diseases.
He also pointed out that if the power of the mutated strains in the future becomes smaller and smaller, and it is likely that there will be no need to supplement supplements.
However, the recommendation of the Expert Advisory Group was not approved expeditiously by the Israeli Ministry of Health. The Ministry of Health said they still need to think about it. But finally on January 2, Bennett announced that the fourth dose had been approved by the Ministry of Health.
Israel's health ministry said its final decision was based on two considerations. The first is epidemiological studies that show that people over the age of 60 triple their risk of infection 4 months after vaccination, while Omilon is more able to escape. Research from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has shown that immunity levels in vaccine enhancers decline over time.
Followed by the healthcare workers who vaccinated first, in the week after the fourth dose, the antibody level increased by 4 times and there was no significant adverse reaction.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) also expects to approve a fourth dose of the vaccine for people over the age of 50 soon. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the third dose of the vaccine was effective in preventing hospitalizations, dropping to 78 percent in the fourth month.
U.S. infectious disease expert Fauci said that the 78% effective rate is still a very safe range, and it is not the time to fully promote the fourth dose of the vaccine; for people with normal immune function, the third dose can provide a high level of protection. However, people with fragile immune function should receive a fourth dose, because the vaccine does not have enough immune activation in their bodies and needs to be further strengthened.
The UK Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunization has even recently recommended that the UK should further deploy autumn booster vaccination, the fifth dose of vaccine. At that time, the public may once again ask how many shots of COVID-19 vaccines ordinary people need to survive the COVID-19 epidemic?