Posted on 07/21/2021 6:00:20 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
The anti-vaccination cult is celebrating the climb in COVID-19 cases in Israel.
Social media – and even some more mainstream media – in recent weeks has been swarming with claims that Israel’s more than 1,000 daily cases are proof that the vaccines don’t work or – even worse – that perhaps the vaccines are the catalyst behind the Delta variant.
“Most of the new COVID cases in Israel are people who have been fully vaccinated. This has been blamed on the new Delta variant. Well, what if the vaccine generated or somehow enabled the new variant? Wouldn’t that explain this new reality?” a journalist from an alternative media outlet wrote on Facebook. “The evidence and logic are too compelling to ignore.”
Last week, a doctor interviewed on Fox’s Ingraham Angle even told the host that there is “no clinical reason to go get vaccinated,” citing Israeli data.
The situation became even more volatile after Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said on Friday that not only does Israel “not know exactly to what degree the vaccine helps, but it is significantly less.”
Bennett, who has pushed hard to get more people inoculated, was not making a broad statement about the vaccines but rather comparing the effectiveness of the shot against the Delta variant to previous mutations.
The Health Ministry had reported earlier this month that the Pfizer vaccine was only around 64% effective at stopping coronavirus infection with the Delta variant, compared to 95% against the original strain – and perhaps even less.
In addition, studies have shown that the vaccine is closer to 90% – as opposed to 97% – effective at stopping serious disease.
As such, it is true that daily coronavirus cases and hospitalizations from the virus have spiked in recent weeks.
According to Tuesday morning’s Health Ministry data, some 124 people were hospitalized, among them 62 in serious condition. More than 65% of people being treated in the hospital were fully vaccinated and closer to 70% of all serious patients. The numbers changed slightly in the evening.
But looking at the total number of new cases or the total percentage of vaccinated people who are hospitalized is “totally misleading,” according to Prof. Eyal Leshem, director of Sheba Medical Center’s Center for Travel Medicine and Tropical Diseases. He said the number to look at is not the absolute number of vaccinated patients who are infected with COVID but rather the rate.
“Does the vaccine reduce the risk of getting infected and getting severe disease? The answer to both questions is yes – the vaccine reduces the risk of getting infected and it significantly reduces the risk of developing severe disease,” Leshem said. Data shared by Prof. Eran Segal, a computational biologist with the Weizmann Institute of Science who advises the government, showed that in this wave versus the previous wave, only between 1.2% and 1.6% of infected people are developing severe disease, compared to between 3.9% and 4.3%. When looking at the older population, in this wave between 4.8% and 6.8% of people over the age of 60 are developing severe disease, compared to 28.1% and 31%.
To make the math easy, let’s say there were 1 million Israelis (as opposed to more than 5m.) who were vaccinated and 100 of them got severe disease. At the same time, there are 100,000 unvaccinated Israelis and 100 of them also got severe disease. Some 50% of severe cases would be vaccinated. However, only 0.01% of vaccinated people would have developed severe disease, compared to 0.1% of the unvaccinated population.
“This is really confusing,” Leshem admitted. “You can have two-thirds of patients vaccinated and one-third unvaccinated, and a vaccine that is 90% effective and still have more vaccinated patients. No one takes the time to talk about it. They just show the tables and people freak out.”
In Israel, 88% or more than 2m. people over the age of 50 are inoculated, compared to around 230,000 who are not.
Moreover, most people who are developing serious cases of the disease are over the age of 60, among whom there is already a greater tendency to be immunocompromised and hence prone to breakthrough infection.
Also, people over 60 in general have a tendency to suffer from more severe diseases, as opposed to younger people who in all previous waves were more likely to develop mild or asymptomatic cases of the virus.
Finally, research is still being conducted on how much the vaccine’s protection wanes after six months or more. And it could be that older Israelis have less immunity since they were among the first to get inoculated.
The Delta variant did not start in Israel. It started in India, where the majority of citizens are unvaccinated, and most of those who are, did not have access to the Pfizer vaccine.
So, as this basic math lesson helps explain, anti-vaxxers might be loud but their claims border on lunacy. The vaccines don’t protect as well against the Delta variant, but they are certainly playing a key role in keeping Israelis safe.
In the battle between fact and fiction, the data should always win out.
>>The anti-vaccination cult is celebrating the climb in COVID-19 cases in Israel.
show me
anti-semites maybe
anti-vaxers? doubt it
The PCR test is unreliable, too many false positives. I doubt the data is unreliable as to the true number of delta variant cases versus original COVID versus long COVID.
This is bullshiite
No one who doesnt want the vaccine is “celebrating” anyone coming down with covid or covax adverse reactions.
No one here has either.
This is a smear attempt by vaccine thugs to smear those who have decided they dont want to take the risk of the experimental treatment. They are smearing those who wont play ball every chance they get, tuning them into scapegoats and that the celebrate people getting sick.
The only people i have run across here and elsewhere who wish people to get sick are the pro vaxers, who have comented to me they hope i come down with it. And i have seen the same comments tossed out by that side to other people they cant stand because they decided not to get vaxxed.
I don’t think we will know what’s really going on until we can look at straight up morality rates of those that took the injections versus those that didn’t.
RE: The PCR test is unreliable, too many false positives. I doubt the data is unreliable as to the true number of delta variant cases versus original COVID versus long COVID.
We’re NOT looking at the PCR tests in this article. We’re looking at the Covid HOSPITALIZATION NUMBERS in Israel.
As of now, According to Tuesday morning’s Israel Health Ministry data, some 124 people were hospitalized, among them 62 in serious condition.
More than 65% of people being treated in the hospital were fully vaccinated and closer to 70% of all serious patients.
We would expect the reverse to be true of the hospitalized... meaning MORE of them should have been among the unvaccinated than vaccinated but this is not the case at this point in time.
This article aims to explain why that is.
Well kinda.
First off, people who had the vaccine in Israel may still get the Delta variant, but far less serious than unvaccinated. It’s the sniffles. So that’s a big deal.
BUT people that recovered from a clinical (symptomatic) case of Covid are extremely unlikely to get anything and whatever they get is mild. 6.75X less likely than vaccinated, specifically. (This is bc Israel’s policy was to not vaccinate the recovered.). I can personally say I have been around people with active Delta cases and didn’t get squat. I had Covid in January.
There are not that many unvaccinated and unrecovered people in Israel. But they have had a rough time with the Delta.
The issue is the US media doesn’t acknowledge a basic truth — if you had a real case of the Covid, and you’re not 90 years old or a queer — it’s no big deal. The pandemic is over for you. Go about your life.
How are they diagnosing COVID?
Or overall mortality in populations pre vaccination and post vaccination.
That works even better, because it addresses the effect on the whole population, and not just a subset of cases.
And an excellent such experiment is ongoing, in the UK right now. https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/
>> if you had a real case of the Covid
Including asymptomatic?
And how long can we test for antibodies?
Seems antibody screening is a better plan than screening for active covid (in absence of symptoms).
It’s cropped up again at work. And they don’t tell us much.
RE: people who had the vaccine in Israel may still get the Delta variant, but far less serious than unvaccinated.
Yes, except for the 65% of those who are hospitalized that are fully vaccinated.
RE: I have been around people with active Delta cases and didn’t get squat. I had Covid in January.
Did you depend on your natural immunity (existing antibodies due to your January infection)? Or did you get a vaccine to boost your already existing antibodies further?
What matters is the number of those hospitalized vs the number who would have been hospitalized absent the vaccine.
This number determines just how important the covid problem is, vis a vis every other sort of human problem, and therefore whether it is reasonable to stop the lockdowns.
RE: What matters is the number of those hospitalized vs the number who would have been hospitalized absent the vaccine.
Well, according to this article, in the case of Israel:
“According to Tuesday morning’s Israel Health Ministry data, some 124 people were hospitalized, among them 62 in serious condition. More than 65% of people being treated in the hospital were fully vaccinated and closer to 70% of all serious patients. The numbers changed slightly in the evening.”
Natural antibodies.
Mind you, I was reasonably sick for five days, completely lost my sense of smell, etc.
And I’ve given blood that was used to cure other people.
Multiple studies say I don’t have to worry about any of this crap again, whatever the variant.
65% of a fraction of a fraction.
An asymptotic case is not a real case, is it?
RE: 65% of a fraction of a fraction.
How about the unvaccinated like yourself?
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