Corona in Israel: Study shows vaccination keeps people off ventilators

Coronavirus vaccines substantially reduce COVID-19-assocaited infection and death at the population level, according to a new Israeli study published Friday in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Clinical trials have demonstrated the ability of the vaccines to ward off serious cases in controlled settings. But this study entitled “Reduction in COVID-19 patients requiring mechanical ventilation following implementation of a national COVID-19 vaccination program,” was meant to show the impact in a real-world setting.

And, unlike the reports provided by hospitals and health funds, this was an ecological, observational study where data was analyzed at the population or group level, rather than at individual level.

Its findings augment the patient-level data published last week showing protection from severe COVID-19 by vaccines.

“What we see from here is that when a certain population gets vaccinated that impacts the number of ventilated patients in that population,” explained Dr. Yair Lewis of Maccabi Health Services and one of the authors of the report.

Israel launched its vaccine campaign in December 2020, prioritizing people 60 and older. By February, 84% of people over the age of 70 had been vaccinated with two shots of the vaccine. The percentage of people aged under 50 who had two shots at the time was less than 10%.

The study compared the number of people requiring mechanical ventilation in these two cohorts and found that while nothing changed for the younger group, there was a 67% decrease in the number of people over the age of 70 requiring ventilation in February 2021, compared to a few months prior, in December.

“These findings provide preliminary evidence of the effectiveness of vaccines in preventing severe cases of COVID-19 at the national level in Israel,” the report said.

It added that, “Many countries are currently conducting national COVID-19 vaccine campaigns. The findings from this study provide preliminary, but important evidence [that] receipt of COVID-19 vaccines by eligible persons can help limit the spread of the disease, and potentially reduce the occurrence of severe disease.”

The study was released on the same day that the Health Ministry provided updated information about the number of citizens and the ages of citizens currently being treated with an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine.

An ECMO machine is a heart-lung machine that removes carbon dioxide from a patient’s blood and returns it to the body oxygen-filled.

The ministry showed there were 40 patients being treated on ECMO devices across Israel. Thirteen were under the age of 40 and another 25 were between the ages 40 and 60. Only three were over 60.

“The percentage of people fully vaccinated in younger age groups was really low [at the time of the study] and it left a lot of people at risk,” Lewis explained. “That is why we are seeing these numbers today.”

He said that the article garnered a lot of interest inside the CDC, because the US is also struggling to persuade younger people to get vaccinated.

“It’s a powerful message that says if you get vaccinated the chance of ending up with severe COVID and on a ventilator is much less,” Lewis said.