Israel was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic – it reported over 831,000 infections. But in just a few months, after launching a mass vaccination campaign, life is “back to normal”.

As of March 15, according to the World Health Organisation, 9.7 million​ vaccine doses had been administered in Israel. A total of 5.18m​ people, which is over half the population, have received at least one dose. A “green pass” has since been introduced allowing vaccinated people exclusive access to gyms, hotels and theatres and concerts.

Kiwi expat Jeremy Ross​, who moved to Israel in 2007, received his second vaccine dose in January, a month after the programme launched.

“This is the end of the road for us … we’re at the end of the tunnel, this is it, the light is here,” Ross said.

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Israeli researchers have found that having just one shot of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine may lead to lower viral loads, making it harder to transmit Covid-19 if someone becomes infected after the first dose.

And it’s not the only positive research about the Pfizer jab to come out of Israel recently.

A separate independent Israeli study, from the country’s largest healthcare provider Clalit, found a 94 percent drop in symptomatic Covid-19 infections among 600,000 people who received two doses of the Pfizer vaccine.

Researchers also found the fully inoculated group was 92 percent less likely to develop severe illness from the virus.

Pfizer has said its jab, which has begun to be rolled out in New Zealand to vaccinators and border workers on Friday, needs two doses taken 21 days apart to be effective.

Why are we getting so much Israeli data?

Nigel McMillan grew up in Timaru, and is professor of infectious diseases and immunology at Queensland’s Griffith University’s Menzies Health Institute, he said it wasn’t surprising there was an influx of information about the Pfizer jab to come out of Israel.

The Pfizer option was the first coronavirus vaccine worldwide to make it through phase three of testing, Professor McMillan explained, which meant it was out being used in the community.

And Israel has already administered more than 6.7 million doses, according to Bloomberg’s Covid vaccine tracker.

This high vaccination rate and the fact that every citizen has a digital health record made it easy for the country to collate and compare information.

“Because [Israel] is vaccinating lots of people, it allows them to compare non-vaccinated and vaccinated people,” Professor McMillan said.

Pfizer has signed an agreement with the Israeli Ministry of Health for anonymised data on vaccine recipients – an arrangement which the company describes as a “non-interventional ‘real-world’ evidence data collection collaboration”, rather than a clinical research study.

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