Israel data: Boosters cut elderly’s risk of COVID death to 50th of unvaxxed rate
‘Dramatic figures’ show over-60s who shun vaccines are not only at much greater risk of death than triple-vaxxed, but also have 65 times the chance of getting seriously ill
By Nathan Jeffay 3 October 2021, 7:05 pm
After boosters, elderly Israelis who are fully inoculated have just one fiftieth of the chance of COVID death compared to unvaccinated people in the same age bracket.
According to Health Ministry data for the last seven days of September, there were 6.43 daily deaths per 100,000 Israelis aged 60-plus. For older people who were vaccinated three times, the average was 0.13.
The statistics indicate that the shift from a two-shot to a three-shot regime has saved many lives. When elderly Israelis who are vaccinated twice get their third shot, they eliminate eleven-twelfths of the risk of death.
The daily deaths over the last seven days of September for the double vaccinated elderly was 1.5, compared to the 0.13 figure for the triple vaccinated.
“These are dramatic figures,” Prof. Ehud Grossman of Tel Aviv University’s medicine faculty told The Times of Israel. “They show clearly that the decrease in the current wave is due to vaccination, and point to the effectiveness of inoculation.”
Noting that there is also a big margin in serious cases between the vaccinated and unvaccinated, he said that the figures highlight the extent to which the continued refusal of around 900,000 eligible Israelis is accentuating the impact of the virus.
“You can deduce that if we were all vaccinated there would be very low severe cases and deaths,” he said.
A health worker administers a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine at a Maccabi Health Services clinic in Jerusalem, on August 20, 2021, soon after Israel approved booster shots for people over 40, a decision that was later expanded to the entire population. (Ahmad Gharabli/AFP)
The statistics show that older people who don’t vaccinate increase their chances of getting seriously ill with COVID-19 by 65 times.
Among triple-vaccinated Israelis aged 60-plus, there are 2.6 people per 100,000 in serious condition. Among the unvaccinated the figure is 168.5. Boosters are shown to be working well in keeping people out of serious condition.