Israeli-made COVID-19 Vaccine Trials Start

 The Hadassah Medical Organization is slated to begin a clinical trial with an Israeli-made COVID-19 vaccine this month. One hundred volunteers are being recruited to participate at Hadassah and Tel Aviv’s Sheba Medical Center.

The vaccine, developed by the Israel Institute for Biological Research (IIBR), was tested successfully on hamsters. IIBR announced in June that hamsters who were given its vaccine and later exposed to the contagion did not contract the coronavirus.

The initial phase of the human trial will test for any major side effects. Should the initial results prove positive, the trials will be expanded to hundreds of volunteers in additional medical centers around the country. Volunteers who receive the vaccine will be paid, and they will remain under medical surveillance for a year.

While the experiment still requires the approval of the Israeli Ministry of Health’s Helsinki Committee, which oversees the rights, safety, and well-being of participants recruited for medical research, Hadassah and Sheba have already begun preparations to recruit young and healthy volunteers.

IIBR engineered the vaccine by replicating a virus that is not harmful to humans and replacing one of its proteins with the coronavirus spike protein. This protein will trigger the production of antibodies to it, preventing the virus from binding to human cells.

Hospitals Begin Turning Away Coronavirus Patients

 By Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman, Sarah Chemla Sept22, 2020

For full article see https://tinyurl.com/y52p265r 

Hospitals began turning away coronavirus patients and shutting down internal medicine wards on Monday as the number of those seriously ill spiked.

The coronavirus cabinet is expected to meet on Tuesday to outline a list of new restrictions that could be implemented immediately after Yom Kippur next week.

Both Samson Assuta Ashdod University Hospital and Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem on Monday said they could accommodate no more coronavirus cases. Health Ministry director-general Chezy Levy called on hospitals to cease offering elective surgery and other services and instead focus on COVID-19.

“This is urgent,” he said in a letter to hospital CEOs. “I expect everyone to act with personal responsibility and determination.”

Meanwhile, the IDF on Monday announced it would open a 200-bed field hospital to help accommodate patient overflow.

The cabinet met Monday to discuss the next steps in the fight against coronavirus.  “Since we made the decision about the lockdown, there has been a consistent rise in the number of serious patients,” Netanyahu said at the cabinet meeting. “Therefore, tomorrow at the coronavirus cabinet meeting, we will consider further steps.

“Anyone who violated the directives or, worse than that, any MK who pushed for looser restrictions, should not ask afterward why the infection rate is rising and should not now come with complaints. The reason for the infection rate is gatherings and people not wearing masks.”

In Nahariya, The Galilee Medical Center director-general Dr. Masad Barhoum said his hospital would open a fourth coronavirus ward by Tuesday at the expense of an internal medicine ward.

“This is the second internal medicine ward that is becoming a coronavirus ward,” Barhoum said. “We will have to use anesthetics as part of a [coronavirus] team to treat serious patients, so we will have no choice but to postpone elective surgery.”

Israel shut down beginning on Rosh Hashanah for what is expected to be a three-week closure. However, as many health experts have pointed out, the closure has a lot of flexibility of movement for citizens and is not expected to reduce morbidity very fast.

Despite the spike in patients, much of the public continues to break Health Ministry regulations. On Monday, N12 visited a neighborhood in Bnei Brak where a Talmud Torah religious school was open despite instructions that the education system remain closed.

In addition, media reports and social media showed that several businesses across the country opened despite fines of up to NIS 5,000 and against Health Ministry rules.

Gamzu, the corona c\ar, lashed out at protesters who continue to gather in large groups, many without masks.

“We need to understand that we are in an emergency; this is a war,” he said. “We [may end] this week with 800 critically ill patients, and that requires a change in the behavior of all of us.”

“We currently need to focus on one goal: reducing morbidity,” he added. “There will be time for demonstrations afterward.”

Tags Coronavirus Coronavirus in Israel coronavirus lockdown Coronavirus Live Updates Ronni Gamzu

Is Israel Approaching Herd Immunity?

  By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

A new study conducted by Ben Gurion University predicts Israel will reach a state of herd immunity against the coronavirus in the coming weeks, Hamodia reported Sunday.

Herd immunity occurs when a high enough percentage of the population has already contracted a disease and recovered from it, giving them enough antibodies in their systems so that the rate of new infections drops as more people gain immunity.

Prof. Mark Last of Ben Gurion University is not a doctor of medicine, but instead is an expert in the field of “medical informatics,” using the power of computer and information science to optimize medical care.

Last says his analysis shows that Israel’s coronavirus infection rate is about to decline. According to his figures, another national lockdown is not necessary if the government maintains current restrictions and no new major outbreaks occur from changes like the opening of the school year this week.

 “If there is no unusual outbreak because of the return to school or the [upcoming Jewish holidays], then the infection rate will start dropping,” Last said. “According to my calculations, we need 1.16 million people with antibodies in order to achieve herd immunity and we are very close to that number,” he said.

In June, the first serological survey showed that the national infection rate then was 2.5 percent indicating some 200,000 Israelis had been infected at the time, but most had few or no symptoms. Since then another 86,000 Israelis have tested positive, most likely exposing several hundred thousand more Israelis to the disease.

Last says his model analyzed the available data and he predicts that the infection rate that peaked before the weekend at just over 2,000 confirmed cases a day will start to go down sometime in the second half of September.

“We cannot know the actual number of cases of infection unless we test the entire population every day,” Last said. “Initial serological tests indicate the ratio of confirmed cases to actual cases is about 1 to 10. Using those numbers, we now have slightly above one million people with antibodies in Israel and we need at least 1.2 million.”

Last is in agreement with government officials who say that another lockdown is not needed because social distancing and the gathering herd immunity will soon produce a reduction in the infection rate.

“We are heading in the right direction, but it is important not to relax our restrictions or get overconfident,” Last warned, estimating by the end of September an additional 500 Israelis will likely die from the virus and bring the death toll up to 1,400.

Cause for Optimism? COVID-19 Could Curb Spread of Seasonal Flu

Maayan Jaffe-Hoffman  August 3,

Social distancing, mask wearing and increased personal hygiene, along with higher rates of flu vaccination, could reduce the number of cases of the respiratory virus in Israel and worldwide this year, according to public health professionals.

“There are some hints from the Southern Hemisphere that the public health measures to prevent COVID-19 also reduce influenza,” chairman of the Israeli Public Health Physicians Association Prof. Hagai Levine told The Jerusalem Post. “There will now be a very unique situation that may teach us how to better prepare for the flu season even after COVID-19 is over.”

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, both COVID-19 and the flu are spread in a similar manner, via person-to-person contact or between people who are within about two meters of each other. Both are spread mainly by droplets made when people with the illnesses cough, sneeze or talk. These droplets can land in the mouths or noses of people who are nearby or possibly be inhaled into their lungs.

Furthermore, both can be spread via touching a surface or object that has the virus on it, as well as from infected people with very mild symptoms, before they begin showing symptoms, or who are asymptomatic.

Because flu and COVID-19 share similar symptoms – fever, cough, shortness of breath, fatigue, sore throat, body aches and headaches – people experiencing these symptoms will likely be more inclined to visit their doctor or even seek care in the emergency department, whereas in the past they may have stayed home and rested.

THERE IS precedent for believing that the measures in place to stop the spread of the novel coronavirus will positively impact the country’s experience with seasonal flu. Already in May, these measures were found to have shortened the flu season in the Northern Hemisphere by about six weeks, according to the World Health Organization. 

Since an estimated 290,000 to 650,000 people typically die worldwide from seasonal flu, that means the shorter season could have spared tens of thousands of lives.

FLU SEASON is at its peak this month in the Southern Hemisphere, Leshem added. He said there does not seem to be anything unique about the flu strain there – it does not seem to have a propensity for higher or lower incidents than last season. 

An important aspect this winter will be whether the local population is vaccinated against the flu. On Sunday, Health Minister Yuli Edelstein said that Israel has three million doses of the vaccine and is working to obtain more, though he said they were not yet readily accessible. 

Prof. Levine, who is also a Hebrew University-Hadassah epidemiologist, said that in Israel every year, flu season crushes the health system and sick Israelis are hospitalized in the corridors.   

“If we can, by proportional measures, prevent the outbreak of flu, maybe we should do it every winter – wear masks, take better care that sick people do not go to school and work,” he said. “These simple measures could actually prevent many deaths.”