Israel’s vaccination campaign saved the lives of at least 20,000 Israelis, Yisrael Hayom reported on Sunday based on data analyzed by former Health Ministry deputy director Prof. Itamar Grotto. According to the report, without its vaccination campaign, Israel’s COVID fatalities would have reached as high as 30,000 instead of its current death toll of 8,371. Grotto’s estimate is actually a cautious one as it applies only to Israelis aged 60 and over, with Grotto estimating that vaccines have also saved the lives of thousands of Israelis under the age of 60. The data also shows that unvaccinated Israelis are eight times as likely to die from COVID as vaccinated Israelis. “Some sectors of the public and some experts are now looking at the Omicron wave and claiming that its proof that this is a minor illness, ‘like the flu,’ but that’s a ridiculous mistake, since it doesn’t take into account the vaccines’ important effect, which is to prevent serious illness and deaths to a large extent, even in the Omicron wave,” Grotto told Yisrael Hayom. Grotto used data based on an analysis by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), which looked at COVID deaths among people age 60 and over that were prevented due to vaccination in countries in the WHO’s European region, which includes Israel. “The researchers concluded that since the start of vaccinations in Europe, the vaccines have saved many elderly people’s lives, and that early and full vaccination of the elderly was a factor in the sharp decline in the number of predicted deaths,” Grotto said. “The reasons why Israel is ranked third in Europe has to do with the rapid rollout of vaccines in Israel and our broad coverage of people age 60 and up.” Professor Galia Rahav, director of the Infectious Disease Department at Sheba Medical Center at Tel Hashomer, told Yisrael Hayom that “the vaccines ended the third wave of COVID and saved many Israelis’ lives.” Rahav added that in the current Omicron wave, it’s possible to see “a drop in the curve of new confirmed cases in people with the second booster, and we also see that serious cases are more prominent in those who haven’t received the fourth shot. There is no doubt that the vaccine prevents hospitalizations, serious illness, and death, and is very successful in doing so. Vaccines are the most important medical intervention in the history of medicine and humanity, and along with hygiene practices and sanitation such as modern sewage systems, have saved billions of people from death, disability, and serious illness.” (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

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