As Israel’s economy reopens on the background of a plummeting national infection rate following a successful vaccination campaign, the question is how long will the effect of the vaccines last? Officially, the vaccine certificate is valid for six months. Earlier this month, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu said that Israelis may need to get vaccinated twice this year for this reason and he’s working on bringing 36 million more vaccines to Israel over the next year. However, recent studies seem to indicate that the vaccine will be effective for longer than six months. Professor Nadav Davidovitch, a senior official in the Israeli Association of Public Health Physicians, told Reshet Bet on Sunday evening that immunity against the coronavirus from the vaccine will last longer than they thought based on studies and follow-up with vaccinated Israelis. “We may extend the green passport for those who have been vaccinated for longer than six months,” he said. “Israel is purchasing vaccines in case a third vaccine is required but at the moment it is not required.” Coronavirus czar Prof. Nachman Ash told Army Radio on Monday morning that although it’s still unknown how long the vaccines will last, the Health Ministry will likely extend the vaccine certificate’s validity beyond six months. Prof. Jonathan Halevy, president of Shaare Zedek Medical Center, also says that Israelis will not need a third vaccine this year, The Jerusalem Post reported. “No one knows the answer to the question of how long the vaccine will last, but we do have some circumstantial evidence to be more optimistic than to believe it will end in July,” Halevy told The Post. “Looking at the level of antibodies in those who recovered, we do notice that it decreases within a few months, but we also know that there are very few mentioned cases of reinfection – a few hundred people out of over 800,000 who got infected – and the same is happening with people who received the vaccine.” Halevy explained that the level of antibodies is not the only factor at play regarding immunity. “There is a question of cellular memory, of how lymphocytes react and more. For this reason, I stick my neck out and say that we will not need another vaccine before 2022.” Haley said that the only possibility that would require another vaccine dose this year is the emergence of an aggressive virus variant that infects even those who have been vaccinated. “But it does not look like this will happen,” he said. Haley concluded by saying that he believes that the coronavirus vaccines will eventually become like flu shots and be administered every year but did add a word of caution that no one can really accurately predict anything in light of how much the coronavirus pandemic has baffled medical experts. “The good news is that m-RNA vaccines are much easier to adapt than other technologies,” he said. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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