Israel is providing the first evidence that coronavirus vaccines work on a mass scale.
In a new study released in Nature Medicine, Israeli researchers found that people aged 60 and older, one of the first groups to be vaccinated, saw their rates of cases, severe cases, and hospitalizations fall faster than groups that were vaccinated later.
“Overall, we show an analysis of large-scale, real-world data from Israel demonstrating real-life effectiveness of a national vaccination campaign,” the researchers wrote. “Although our findings are preliminary, they have major public health implications for the struggle against the COVID-19 pandemic.”
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Some cities in Israel began their vaccinations earlier than others. In those cities, for those aged 60 and up, new COVID-19 cases fell 88% from their peak, versus 54% for all other age groups. New hospitalizations and new severe cases fell 81% and 79%, respectively, for those aged 60 and up. For those under age 60, they fell 38% and 67%, respectively.
Cities where vaccinations began later showed similar patterns.
The researchers were also able to eliminate the January lockdown in Israel as an explanation for the decline in cases among those aged 60 and up. They compared the January lockdown to the lockdown in September, prior to the vaccine. The rates of new cases, hospitalizations, and severe cases fell at similar rates for all age groups during the September lockdown, suggesting that the vaccines were responsible for the faster declines among those aged 60 and up after the January lockdown.
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Israel has been leading much of the developed world in its vaccination rate. Currently, Israel has vaccinated over 61% of its population. The next closest is the United Kingdom at 48%. The United States is just shy of 40%.
