Interesting -- Israel is requiring everyone to get a Pfizer Covid booster after six months. Otherwise they are considered to be unvaccinated for "green pass" purposes. Covid 19 coronavirus: Nearly 2 million people could lose vaccine status in Israel as rules change https://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/co...l-as-rules-change/EWLAN7NDGCJM4UIYJAG42ZGHSQ/ Over the course of the Covid-19 pandemic, Israel has been heralded as one of the best performing nations when it comes to vaccination against the disease. Shortly after trials were complete on vaccines, the nation of 9.3 million raced to get as many jabs in arms as quickly as possible – after striking a deal with Pfizer to trade medical data in exchange for a steady supply of doses. Once the majority of the Middle Eastern nation's adult population was fully vaccinated a few months ago, Israel lifted virtually all Covid-19 restrictions and a sense of normality returned. However, anybody who has been following the impact of the Delta strain on Israel knows it has not been plain sailing ever since. When daily case numbers hovered around zero at the beginning of their summer, Israel's businesses reopened, mass gatherings resumed, and face masks were tossed away as people flocked to beaches and restaurants. The optimism didn't last long. By the beginning of September, cases had climbed to more than 20,000 a day, hospitalisations were rising and more than 50 deaths a day were being recorded. Things were starting to look better at the beginning of this month – with cases and deaths dropping – but as winter begins to rear its head in the Northern Hemisphere, there is a fierce debate happening about what the next steps are for Israel. It is all coming to a head this week, as the goalposts for vaccinated residents are about to shift in a major way. From yesterday, the conditions for the nation's Covid Green Pass – essentially a vaccine passport that allows inoculated residents to enter indoor venues – have been radically altered. The shake-up means Israel is now the first country in the world to no longer provide its vaccination certificate to citizens who had received their second vaccine dose more than six months ago. Under the new guidelines, people must have received a third jab, a booster shot, to be eligible for a green pass. People who have received two vaccine doses, and those who have recovered from coronavirus, will be issued passes valid for six months after the date of their third booster shot or recovery. It means that nearly 2 million people will lose their vaccination passport in the coming days – with the cull beginning yesterday. It's a big blow for residents who don't meet the criteria because the loss of their Green Pass certificates will prevent them from entering public spaces, including restaurants, hotels, clubs, cultural venues and large private gatherings. However, people will only have those privileges stripped away from them if they are eligible for a third shot and have not taken it up. In response to its summer outbreak, Israel launched an aggressive booster campaign to shore up waning vaccine efficacy in its population. Over 60 per cent of Israel's population has received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine and nearly 3.5 million of Israel's 9.3 million citizens have received a booster dose of the vaccine. However, at least 2 million more have received just two doses, and many will lose the privileges bestowed by the green pass which comes into effect this week. The new system means unvaccinated people can only gain entry with a proof of a negative rapid test carried out at an authorised test station, which is valid for 24 hours, or a negative PCR test valid for 72 hours. There has been a wave of opposition to the new system, with hundreds of Israelis staging demonstrations around the country in protest of it. Footage of the demonstrations on Sunday shows convoys of cars clogging morning commutes as many Israelis who returned to work after September's Jewish High Holidays. Opponents of the system said it is a form of forced vaccination. The change in policy came after Israeli health officials and experts warned of a significant waning of immunity in people five or six months after their second Pfizer dose. Overseas studies have also shown the need for booster Pfizer doses after several months. A large and recent study by the University of Oxford found the efficacy of the Pfizer jab fell by 22 per cent per month – from an original 84 per cent for adults overall. According to data published by the American Centers for Disease Control and Prevention last month, the protection afforded by the Pfizer vaccine begins to decline around four months after the vaccination date. The US, UK and other countries including Israel have already approved booster doses for older people who had the Pfizer vaccine six to eight months after their first doses. Australia's government advisory body on vaccines is expected to rule on whether Australians need a booster dose in coming weeks. Israel, meanwhile, is pushing ahead with its revised green pass plan. "Now is the time to be strict about the Green Pass, be cautious and not become complacent," Israel Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said late on Saturday. An early advocate of the third dose, Bennett said it saved lives and allowed the economy to remain open. Professor Nadav Davidovitch, head of the Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians said requiring Israelis to receive the booster in order to be considered fully vaccinated and eligible for the Green Pass was "the right decision". He told local media the Green Pass is "not a prize or punishment" but rather a public health measure based on consideration of clinical and epidemiological data. Israel changed its policy regarding vaccination status earlier than other countries because it began vaccinating earlier (last December), and enough time has passed "to see a sharp rise in community transmission", he said. He added that the data indicated that the increase in protection following a third shot could "be 10 times and up, compared to people who got the second dose".
Related to the false narrative of western countries should forego boosters to ship first dose shots to poorer countries, I held the position that is not the solution needed but to ramp up production of vaccines in poorer countries. This is the way:
Pfizer seeks FDA authorization of COVID-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11 https://www.wral.com/coronavirus/pf...9-vaccine-for-children-ages-5-to-11/19914004/ Pfizer and BioNTech said Thursday they are seeking US Food and Drug Administration emergency use authorization from for their Covid-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11. If authorized, this would be the first Covid-19 vaccine for younger children. The Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine is approved for people age 16 and older and has an EUA for people ages 12 to 15. Last month, Pfizer released details of a Phase 2/3 trial that showed its Covid-19 vaccine was safe and generated a "robust" antibody response in children ages 5 to 11. The trial included 2,268 participants ages 5 to 11 and used a two-dose regimen of the vaccine administered 21 days apart. This trial used a 10-microgram dose -- smaller than the 30-microgram dose that has been used for those 12 and older. Participants' immune responses were measured by looking at neutralizing antibody levels in their blood and comparing those levels to a control group of 16- to 25-year-olds who were given a two-dose regimen with the larger 30-microgram dose. Pfizer said the levels compared well with older people who received the larger dose, demonstrating a "strong immune response in this cohort of children one month after the second dose." Pfizer began submitting its data on the vaccine for younger children to the FDA late last month, but had not formally requested authorization until now. FDA officials had said that once vaccine data for younger children was submitted, the agency could authorize a vaccine for younger children in a matter of weeks -- not months -- but it would depend on the timing and quality of the data provided. In anticipation of the request, the FDA last week scheduled a meeting of its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee to discuss the vaccine in children ages 5 to 11 on October 26. If the FDA OKs it, a panel of CDC vaccine advisers will meet to consider whether to recommend its use. "We know from our vast experience with other pediatric vaccines that children are not small adults, and we will conduct a comprehensive evaluation of clinical trial data submitted in support of the safety and effectiveness of the vaccine used in a younger pediatric population, which may need a different dosage or formulation from that used in an older pediatric population or adults," Acting FDA Commissioner Dr. Janet Woodcock said in a statement about the October 26 meeting.
These latest studies are not surprising in view of earlier information. All vaccines wane over time - for example "vaccines, such as those against measles, mumps, and rubella, has shown a small decrease each year of 5 to 10% in the neutralizing antibody levels". The issue is the current generation of Covid vaccines wane much quicker -- in the matter of months. Hence the importance of boosters. Studies confirm waning immunity from Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/06/health/pfizer-vaccine-waning-immunity/index.html Two real-world studies published Wednesday confirm that the immune protection offered by two doses of Pfizer's Covid-19 vaccine drops off after two months or so, although protection against severe disease, hospitalization and death remains strong. The studies, from Israel and from Qatar and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, support arguments that even fully vaccinated people need to maintain precautions against infection. One study from Israel covered 4,800 health care workers and showed antibody levels wane rapidly after two doses of vaccine "especially among men, among persons 65 years of age or older, and among persons with immunosuppression." "We conducted this prospective longitudinal cohort study involving health care workers at Sheba Medical Center, a large tertiary medical center in Israel," Sheba's Dr. Gili Regev-Yochay and colleagues wrote. The researchers noted that levels of so-called neutralizing antibodies -- the immune system's first line of defense against infection -- correlate with protection against infection, but for this study they studied only antibody levels. "Published work about many vaccines, such as those against measles, mumps, and rubella, has shown a small decrease each year of 5 to 10% in the neutralizing antibody levels," they wrote. "We found that a significant and rapid decrease in humoral response to the BNT162b2 vaccine was observed within months after vaccination." The study also indicated that immunity for people who get vaccinated after natural Covid-19 infection lasts longer. It's especially strong for people who recovered from infection and then got vaccinated, also. "Overall, the accumulating evidence from our study and others shows that long-term humoral response and vaccine effectiveness in previously infected persons were superior to that in recipients of two doses of vaccine," they wrote. A second study from Qatar looked at actual infections among the highly vaccinated population of that small Gulf nation. People there mostly got Pfizer/BioNTech's vaccine, also known as BNT162b2. "BNT162b2-induced protection against infection builds rapidly after the first dose, peaks in the first month after the second dose, and then gradually wanes in subsequent months," Laith Abu-Raddad of Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar and colleagues wrote. "The waning appears to accelerate after the fourth month, to reach a low level of approximately 20% in subsequent months," they added. Nonetheless, protection against hospitalization and death stayed at above 90%, they said. The waning protection may involve behavior, they noted. "Vaccinated persons presumably have a higher rate of social contact than unvaccinated persons and may also have lower adherence to safety measures," they wrote. "This behavior could reduce real-world effectiveness of the vaccine as compared with its biologic effectiveness, possibly explaining the waning of protection." But it's a signal that countries should prepare for fresh surges of Covid-19. "These findings suggest that a large proportion of the vaccinated population could lose its protection against infection in the coming months, perhaps increasing the potential for new epidemic waves," they wrote. Pfizer has been arguing that immunity from the first two doses of its vaccine begins to wear off after a few months. Last month, Pfizer won authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration for booster doses of its vaccine for some six months after people finish their first two doses. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended that people older than 65, people with conditions making them more susceptible to getting seriously ill with breakthrough infections, and people at high risk of infection such as health care workers and prison inmates get boosters. Israel has been boosting its entire population and now says it will require people to have had a third shot to be considered fully vaccinated. In the United States, more than 6 million people have received a third dose of vaccine and average the pace of booster shots is higher than the rate of people getting vaccinated for the first time, according to CDC data.
Let's address the latest nonsense being pushed by unhinged anti-vaxxers Claim: A person’s immune system “tanks” after their second COVID-19 vaccine dose. No evidence that COVID-19 vaccines weaken the immune system https://www.politifact.com/factchec...dence-covid-19-vaccines-weaken-immune-system/
U.S. CDC advisers to review Moderna, J&J COVID-19 booster shots this month https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us...erna-jj-covid-19-vaccine-boosters-2021-10-08/ Independent advisers to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet later this month to make recommendations on booster doses of Moderna Inc (MRNA.O) and Johnson & Johnson's (JNJ.N) COVID-19 vaccines, the agency said on Friday. (More at above url)
Joe has already given them the right answer hasn't he? Following the science with Dr. Joe. Just when you were thinking that he was just a military genius, it turns out that he is a medical expert too.
I doubt that a booster will be approved for Moderna beyond the immunocompromised and elderly. The Moderna vaccine which is delivered in three times the dose of the Pfizer vaccine appears to wane less over time and has stronger results in reducing hospitalizations. Big gap between Pfizer, Moderna vaccines seen for preventing COVID hospitalizations https://www.latimes.com/science/sto...vaccines-at-preventing-covid-hospitalizations
Joe has declares that there will be mucho booster shots. What the exact winners and losers within that dictate will be is another matter. Although Moderna is Fauci's baby so he will be looking out for them. Joe is also declaring and promoting worldwide distrubution of American vaccines so he and Fauci will find markets for Moderna somewhere. Joe doesn't give a shiite. You could give everyone sugar water in a syringe for all he cares. He just wants to see vaccinations for everyone, everywhere because he only understands the simple stuff. Masks and needles everywhere is his simple approach. Whatever he is doing has resulted in a lot of covid deaths which is contrary to what he promised.
Lets see what Fox News has to say about vaccines under Biden saving lives. Vaccines linked to preventing over a quarter-million COVID-19 cases, 39,000 deaths among seniors https://www.foxnews.com/health/covid-vaccine-prevention-cases-death-seniors-hhs