Data from Israel's world-leading COVID-19 vaccination drive still look promising, Reuters reports.
The elderly were prioritized in the campaign, and since the country began administering second doses on Jan. 10, the over-60 population has seen significant declines in confirmed COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths as compared to the below-60 population, which has actually experienced a rise in the latter two categories.
A chart from Our World in Data, based out of the University of Oxford, similarly shows a decline in infections among older people, but breaks down the age groups even further. There, you can see an an uptick in infections (as opposed to hospitalizations and deaths in the above chart, which are lagging factors), in the youngest populations, which hints that the vaccine is a factor in protecting older people, especially as the more contagious variant first identified in the United Kingdom increases its footprint in Israel.
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Reuters also points to a study from Maccabi Healthcare Services, which shows a side-by-side comparison of the infection rate in the vaccinated and non-vaccinated people. The former group has reported far fewer cases, both total and as a percentage, and the rate has continued to dwindle the further people get from their second dose. Read more at Reuters. Tim O'Donnell
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