Wednesday, August 25, 2021

Global USA Cases continue > 120,000/day Had an extremely interesting Zoom meeting yesterday with the Israeli Minister of Health and several Israeli scientists. The Israelis have always been about a month or so ahead of the USA temporarily with regard to the dynamics of the outbreak, the percentage of population vaccinated, and their recent decision to provide booster shots as third doses first to their elderly and then to progressively younger people. On the zoom call that Danny Douek and Bob Seder helped organize since Danny spent a year sabbatical in Israel, it became clear that's what we suspected was actually true. On the call for the Israelis were: Nachman Ash, Minister of Health of Israel; Sharon Alroy-Preis – Director of Public Health Services for Israel; Ran Achitov – Senior Advisor to the Israel Prime Minister Naftali Bennett; Ron Milo – Weizmann Institute; Boaz Lev. The Israelis were seeing a gradual waning of protection of the Pfizer vaccine over a few months to the point of protection against infection and mild disease was dramatically diminished after several months. Importantly, they found that the protection against severe disease leading to hospitalization also significantly decreased. This latter point is extremely important because the data from the USA cohorts was suggesting that But did not definitively show it. In addition, they gave booster shots to about 1.6 million people and have shown that the booster shots dramatically reconstitute the protection against infection. clinical disease and hospitalization. Furthermore, they found a decrease in the Ro strongly suggesting that the booster also diminished transmission. These findings completely validate I would decision to begin giving boosters here in the United States. I briefed Jeff on this last night and we will arrange an additional call with the Israelis including John Mascola, David Kessler, and others involved in our program. PRESS: The Times of Israel: Health Ministry officials said to update Fauci on COVID booster shot campaign Today, 9:02 pm • US top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci testifies before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, on Capitol Hill in Washington, on July 20, 2021. (J. Scott Applewhite, Pool/AP) The Kan public broadcaster reports that top Health Ministry officials, including director-general Nachman Ash, held a virtual meeting with Dr. Anthony Fauci to discuss Israel’s COVID-19 vaccine booster shot campaign. The report says that the Israeli officials updated Fauci, who is director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and US President Joe Biden’s chief medical advisor, on figures showing that the third vaccine dose provides increased protection against infection and serious morbidity. The US is planning to begin administering booster shots next month.