Covid-19 Vaccinations in Israel
As of mid-April, Israel is the only country that has fully vaccinated more than 50% of its population.
Estimates indicate that at least 70% of the total population will need to be vaccinated to control the virus. Some studies indicate that 80% or even 85% of the population will need vaccinations to control it. If 70% of the total population is required, then it looks like Israel will not hit that objecive by the end of the year. Daily vaccinations dropped off significantly after Israel fully vaccinated around 50% of its population.
But given that about 28% of the population is under 14, the 55% vaccination number translates roughly to 76% of the total population. Until vaccines are available for children, this may be about the best we can hope for.
Israel started a national campaign of vaccination using the Pfizer vaccine BNT162b2 vaccine (developed by BioNTech in cooperation with Pfizer) beginning in early January, 2021. This lead Israel to having one of the highest vaccination rates per capita. The jump in cases in January along with the emergence of the B1.1.7 variant resulted in a lockdown that started on January 8, 2020. The lockdown was eased starting in February.
It is difficult to separate the impact of the lockdown from the impacts of vaccines, especially in January and February, but there was a huge drop through all of March and as of mid-April the rate of new cases has dropped significantly as have many coronavirus restrictions including outdoor mask requirements.
Unfortunately Israel is an outlier in a global pandemic. Many of its neighboring countries have vaccination rates of less than 3% or 4% of their populations. Few in Palestinian territories of the West Bank and Gaza Strip have been vaccinated and the new case rates are raging.
As the chart below demonstrates, daily vaccinations dropped off significantly after Israel fully vaccinated around 50% of its population. This may be a concern indicating the difficult of reaching the 70% number many think is required for herd immunity, but as mentioned above, it means roughly 76% of the adult population has been vaccinated and one would expect that as vaccines become available for children, the daily doses should increase again.
For comparison, about 26% of the U.S. population is fully vaccinated as of April 19, 2020 and they have not yet seen the diminishing number of new cases that Israel has seen.
