Pre-Omicron Israeli research: People 50+ who got 3rd shot had 90% lower death rate

Researchers looked at data of over 840,000 people who got booster; paper co-author says study ‘unequivocally’ shows value of extra dose against Delta strain

By TOI STAFF     Today, 10:02 am

 A couple receive their third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at Shaare Zedek hospital, on August 17, 2021, in Jerusalem. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)
A couple receive their third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at Shaare Zedek hospital, on August 17, 2021, in Jerusalem. (Olivier Fitoussi/Flash90)

Israeli research carried out before the emergence of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus found that people over the age of 50 who received a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine had 90 percent lower mortality than those who did not get the booster.

The research, based on data from the Clalit health maintenance organization and published in the New England Journal of Medicine, examined those who had received their second dose of the vaccine at least five months earlier. Clalit is the largest of Israel’s HMOs.

In July, Israeli became the first country in the world to start a campaign to administer a third dose of the vaccine in the face of falling efficacy against a wave of the Delta strain of the virus. Those aged 50 or over became eligible for a booster in August.

Researchers studied the data of 843,208 individuals, of whom 758,118 (90%) received the booster (the third dose) during the period of the study.

In that group, there were 65 deaths due to COVID-19 — 0.16 per 100,000 persons per day.

In the group of vaccinated individuals who did not receive the booster, 137 died — 2.98 per 100,000 persons per day.


A woman receives a COVID-19 vaccine shot at a mobile Magen David Adom center on Dizengoff Square in Tel Aviv, on August 14, 2021. (Miriam Alster/Flash90)

The statistics were adjusted for sociodemographic factors and coexisting medical conditions. Individuals were counted as having received the booster only from one week after they were administered the third dose.

Doron Netzer, head of community medicine at Clalit, told the Walla news site that the study showed “unequivocally that the booster vaccine is significantly associated with reducing the risk of mortality from coronavirus, including from the Delta strain.”

Netzer, named as a co-author on the paper, added that the third shot of the vaccine was incredibly effective in a way that is rarely seen.

“Very few medical interventions can be attributed to a tenfold reduction in the risk of mortality, as we found for the booster vaccine,” he said.

However, it remains unclear exactly how effective the vaccine is in the face of the Omicron strain.


Israelis, some wearing face masks, shop at Jerusalem’s Mahane Yehuda market, December 2, 2021. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)

BioNTech and Pfizer said Wednesday that their vaccine is “still effective” against the variant after three doses.

An Omicron-specific version of the jab, which BioNTech began developing on November 25, will be available “by March,” they said in a statement.

Pfizer said that a third dose of its COVID vaccine “increases the neutralizing antibody titers by 25-fold compared to two doses against the Omicron variant,” based on an initial laboratory study.

The initial data, said Pfizer, shows that “a third dose provides a similar level of neutralizing antibodies to Omicron as is observed after two doses against” previous strains of COVID-19.

Initial research from a South Africa-based laboratory indicated that the efficacy of two doses of the Pfizer vaccine drops in the face of the Omicron variant, but that those with two doses plus a previous infection were well protected. There were no participants included in the study who had received three doses of the vaccine, since booster shots are not yet available in South Africa.


In South Africa, where the Omicron variant was first discovered, a woman is tested for COVID-19. (AP Photo/ Shiraaz Mohamed)

“These results are better than I expected,” tweeted Alex Sigal, a researcher at Africa Health Research Institute who authored the study. “The more antibodies you got, the more chance you’ll be protected from Omicron.”

As of Monday, Israel has confirmed 21 cases of the Omicron variant.

Fears of the spread of the new COVID mutation led Israel to shut its borders to foreigners in late November and institute a mandatory three-day quarantine for all those who arrive — even those with three vaccine doses.

From Thursday, confirmed carriers of the Omicron COVID-19 variant will be required to quarantine for 14 days, instead of the 10 days mandated for confirmed carriers of other coronavirus strains.

Scientists from both the World Health Organization and the United States government have said this week the Omicron variant appears to be no worse than other coronavirus strains — but that more research is still necessary.

Amy Spiro and AFP contributed to this report.

December 9, 2021 | 12 Comments »

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12 Comments / 12 Comments

  1. The reality is that the consequences of these restrictive measures are damaging to society at large, but none support the harms more than the children made to suffer in a state of loneliness and isolation, sterilized from personal interactinons with friends while still developing their mental accumen for such things. It is tragic. For more on this, watch this
    https://www.bitchute.com/video/COjir69zpWq3/

    I looked at the study in the new england journal of medicine. Pelonis is clearly mistaken because his comment assumes that the study says that people a week after the booster shot are less likely to die of any cause than those who didnt.

    This is a mis-understanding of my words, and it is not what I stated. It would be silly for me to suggest that any vaccine or drug would protect you from death from any cause. So forgive me if this is what was taken from my comments, but if you revisit my comments, you will see this is not what I stated. The point here is that the deaths resulting from the vaccines, all of the deaths resulting from the vaccines including those who might be coincidentally diagnosed with Covid, are counted among the unvaccinated for that crucial week. In that week 80% of all deaths associated with the vaccines(20K in VAERS now) will occur in that week following the injections(25% in 1 day, 40-50% within 2 days). Any drug must be held accountable for 100% of the injuries that it causes starting at the very moment of the drug being administered, not one week later and not two weeks later, but on that very moment in which the interaction between a biological system of the patient becomes purposefully exposed to a known mixture of toxic compounds in the form of an injection. The actual numbers of those who become sick and those who actually die following an injection could easily have been counted, not estimated and not ignored, but simply counted, recorded and reported. Why weren’t they?

    On a sidenote, the period of time during which the study was conducted is also during the honeymoon period post jab, in which, if you don’t die from the treatment, you are likely to have antibodies enough to prevent infection. Covid is very easily treated if you treat it with anything, so elevations of antibodies to the virus should be able to do so if they are actually effective at clearing the virus.

    To balance this, though, based on analyses by Ben M(https://twitter.com/USMortality), Mathew Crawford(https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/p/uk-data-shows-no-all-cause-mortality) and James Lyons-Weiler(https://substack.com/profile/40349055-james-lyons-weiler), the issue of the possibility that the vaccines are not actually preventing Covid deaths at all has been raised.

    There is no conceivable reason the actual data, all of it, should not be publicly revealed. We should not be left to surmise if the research of these researches is correct or to trust the details chosen to be released to the public. The govts involved should all release the data to full scrutiny, as this is how the actual numbers may be best interpreted by everyone. This is not the Manhattan project, and the govts have been seen to actually doctor the data for whatever reasons. We are not children and we are all involved in this experiment, some in the placebo arm and other in the experimental arm. We should be free to understand the harms and injuries being suffered due to these vaccinations without a state managed cipher. A very useful answer would be to know how many of the Covid deaths since July 31 actually died with a 3rd jab? Is it none of them? Doubtful. Is it all of them? Doubtful. So what is the number and why should this not be known?
    /2

  2. The reality is that the consequences of these restrictive measures are damaging to society at large, but none support the harms more than the children made to suffer in a state of loneliness and isolation, sterilized from personal interactinons with friends while still developing their mental accumen for such things. It is tragic. For more on this, watch this
    https://www.bitchute.com/video/COjir69zpWq3/

    I looked at the study in the new england journal of medicine. Pelonis is clearly mistaken because his comment assumes that the study says that people a week after the booster shot are less likely to die of any cause than those who didnt.

    This is a mis-understanding of my words, but it is not what I stated. It would be silly for me to suggest that any vaccine or drug would protect you from death from any cause, so forgive me if this is what was taken from my comments, but if you revisit my comments, you will see this is not what I stated. The point here is that the deaths resulting from the vaccines, all of the deaths resulting from the vaccines including those who might be coincidentally diagnosed with Covid, are counted among the unvaccinated for that crucial week. In that week 80% of all deaths associated with the vaccines(20K in VAERS now) will occur in that week following the injections(25% in 1 day, 40-50% within 2 days). Any drug must be held accountable for 100% of the injuries that it causes starting at the very moment of the drug being administered, not one week later and not two weeks later, but on that very moment in which the interaction between a biological system of the patient becomes purposefully exposed to a known mixture of toxic compounds in the form of an injection. The actual numbers of those who become sick and those who actually die following an injection could easily have been counted, not estimated and not ignored, but simply counted, recorded and reported. Why weren’t they?

    On a sidenote, the period of time during which the study was conducted is also during the honeymoon period post jab, in which, if you don’t die from the treatment, you are likely to have antibodies enough to prevent infection. Covid is very easily treated if you treat it with anything, so elevations of antibodies to the virus should be able to do so if they are actually effective at clearing the virus.

    To balance this, though, based on analyses by Ben M(https://twitter.com/USMortality), Mathew Crawford(https://roundingtheearth.substack.com/p/uk-data-shows-no-all-cause-mortality) and James Lyons-Weiler(https://substack.com/profile/40349055-james-lyons-weiler), the issue of the possibility that the vaccines are not actually preventing Covid deaths at all has been raised.

    There is no conceivable reason the actual data, all of it, should not be publicly revealed. We should not be left to surmise if the research of these researches is correct or to trust the details chosen to be released to the public. The govts involved should all release the data to full scrutiny, as this is how the actual numbers may be best interpreted by everyone. This is not the Manhattan project, and the govts have been seen to actually doctor the data for whatever reasons. We are not children and we are all involved in this experiment, some in the placebo arm and other in the experimental arm. We should be free to understand the harms and injuries being suffered due to these vaccinations without a state managed cipher. A very useful answer would be to know how many of the Covid deaths since July 31 actually died with a 3rd jab? Is it none of them? Doubtful. Is it all of them? Doubtful. So what is the number and why should this not be known?
    /2

  3. @Ted
    Ok, a lot to unpack here, so let me know if I miss something.

    Lets do the simple items first.

    Masks are not worn by medical professionals to protect themselves from contracting a disease. Medical professionals use masks during surgery to prevent spittle from being passed from their mouth into a sterile field which has been scrubbed and prepped to remove any bacteria so as not to infect a surgical site. When faced with a possible infectious disease, full body suits are used – you can see the type used by the Chi Zhengli in the lab as an example. Such standards are ridiculous, but they may be the next silly thing chosen to combat a virus that only kills a fraction of a fraction of 1% of the people infected.

    The use of masks are not used to protect people from contracting disease. It isn’t possible to prevent the virus from entering the side openings as they are completely open and routinely you can fit a finger in the gaps, and a virus which is a tiny fraction of the width of a hair will fly right through. The conversation will be swayed dependent on the details of the mask being discussed, but lets consider the surgical masks. The box the mask comes in states on it that it is not protective for the use for which you are suggesting it be used. The only use the masks might offer is if the virus were to be believed to be spread via spittle droplets, but they are not. They are spread by aerosolized particles that are too small for the cloth masks, surgical masks or N95 masks to stop. So let us consider the N95 mask which is the best of the masks that are used by people, and almost no one uses N95 masks and of those who do, almost none use them properly. The N-95 respirator is a pretty poor respirator but serves a purpose in the proper context, but the proper context is not to protect people from a virus surrounded by an oily fat based envelop. This is because the virus is ~1/3 the size of the opening of the pores in the masks. Complicating this is the reality that the ‘N’ in N-95 indicates the fact that the mask is rated for “non-oil” conditions and the virus is surrounded in an oily fat based envelope. There are othe respirators with a rationg of R, stands for oil-Resistant, or P, stands for oil-Proof, which would be useful. I have used these respirators, and they are not comfortable, and not cheap. I really hated every moment I used them, but they do work, as they are designed to do what these other masks are not. The masks give people comfort that they are doing something productive, but it is a mental crutch offered to people who can walk well enough without them. There is a great deal to discuss about masks and their useless and potentially very harmful nature, but I will not revisit these details further as I believe this makes the point clear.

    Comparing two countries where the death rate is based over two years and multiple comfounders is a more complicated thing than your statement comparing Israel to Brazil might suggest. Not the least of these confounders regarding Brazil and Israel is that Brazil’s health care is archaic by comparison to Israel’s. Since you have suggested we compare two nations of such distinct medical capabilities, though, let us look at the Indian State of Uttar Predesh and Israel. There are no deaths or cases in UP for nearly 6months, while Israel with her masks, mandates and vaccines have just recently achieved a few days with 0 deaths, and the cases are still nearly 6K over 5months past their booster campaing, despite the ubiquitous use of masks and mandates and managed access of its population.

    Furthermore, for those who are less accepting of India’s results, there is this More Than 400 Studies on the Failure of Compulsory Covid Interventions
    As Dr. Malone noted the score stands at 400-0
    /1

  4. Israel’s “green passport” system, which is a kind of lockdown, is a sparate issue from the vaccines. This system, as well as previous lockdowns, has largely destroyed the Israeli economy. The tourism industry, in particular, has been destroyed, which has a negative ripple effect all through the economy. It has also crippled the iDF, since many soldiers have been quarantined, and the emphasis of military commanders has shifted from military preparedness to protecting their soldiers from Covid. In the long run, these “protective” measures will hurt Israel far more than the Covid epidemic.

    The Israeli government’s panic over Omricon is difficult to explain, since it seems to produce milder symptoms than the now-dominant Delta variant. So far, no deaths from Omricon have been reported. Imposing travel restrictions to prevent the spread of a variant that many virologists think may actually reduce the Covid death toll, by replacing a virulent variant (Delta) with a less virulent and dangerous one.

    I’ve always wondered why so many Jews are resourceful in advancing their personal interests, but completely unable to grasp what is in the collective interest of the Jewish people.

  5. With respect to Brazil. Brazil has always had a much higher rate of infectious diseases than the more developed and richer countries, because a large part of the population has no access to running water or sewage disposal systems. Many people have improvised tin roofs to their shelters, which offer little protection either from heat or rain, There are few doctors who treat the poor and no medicare system. There is heavy pollution of the air and water by heavy industry in the urban areas. As a result, Brazil has always had a high death rate. How much the over-a;; death rate has increased because of the Covid epidemic is not known with any degree of certainty at this time.

    The government has offered everyone free vaccinations, and a large part of the population has been vaccinated. How effective this has been in reducing the number of serious covid cases is uncertain. Official statistics do show some reduction in Covid deaths over the past year.

  6. I don’t doubt that the vaccines have reduced the incidence of Covid. And of course that is a good thing. What we don’t know is whether it has reduced the over-all death and hospitalization rates in Israel. One of the concerns of the vaccine skeptics is that the cover vaccinations could shift the “viral load” to other viral illnesses that the vaccine does not protect against, causing these illnesses, such as influenza and the many varieties of “common cold,” to increase both in number of cases and in virulence. The theory here is that the vaccines orient the entire immune system towards fighting off Covid, reducing their natural immunity toward other viral illnesses. The Israeli authorities have not released enough data for us to know whether this is happening or not.

    We also have no idea how many adverse reactions there have been to the vaccine, or how many serious illnesses and deaths have occurred to vaccinated individuals within a short time after their vaccination. That is because Israel does not have anything like the VAERS system in the United States. The VAERS system has reported far more adverse reactions to the Covid vaccines than to any of the other vaccines that are now in widespread use.

    The Israeli health ministry should release much more data bearing on the possible adverse effects of the vaccine, and the number of deaths and serious illnesses from non-Covid diseases, accidents, suicides and homicides so that we can get a clearer idea of the over-all impact of the vaccination campaign on the health of the Israeli people.

  7. Email received from my daughter:

    I looked at the study in the new england journal of medicine. Pelonis is clearly mistaken because his comment assumes that the study says that people a week after the booster shot are less likely to die of any cause than those who didnt. But the study clearly says deaths FROM COVID. So the statistics would be the same regardless of whether not a single person died of side effects of the vaccine (which is actually the case) or thousands if people died from the vaccine. Because they were only counting COVID deaths.
    Also only 500-1000 Israelis die on average in israel annually from covid as compared to the over 8,000 people who have died from covid despite the masks lockdowns restrictions on gathering quarentines etc. Of course you will argue that 8000 people is not a good enough reason for all these restrictions but of course that doesn’t take into account how many people might of died WITHOUT these restrictions. If you look at countries like Brazil that were very much against corona restrictions, Brazils death rate from covid was 2,872 per 1 million population vs Israel where it was 880 per 1 million. Think how many more people might have died in israel without the various mandates and restrictions.
    And finally if you believe that masks aren’t effective in preventing spread of disease why do you think that medical personnel have been wearing them for centuries?

  8. @Bear

    90% is significant!

    It is true that 90% is significant, it is, however, also true that 90% is not true. If you read the study released, they clearly state that the cases included in their protected threshold categorized as “vaccinated” include those who are not ill after 7 days. The seven days allowance is significant. From Dr. Rose’s and Dr. McClaughlin’s research, 80% of all injuries occur in the first week following vaccination, including developing covid, developing seizures, or simply developing death. So if you exclude those first 7days, you eliminate all concerns that you should be concerned with investigating as being a consequence of having injected a highly toxic compound into a person’s body for the third time in less than a year, in some cases, much less than a year. So, should we accept the statistics and data management by the parties who will benefit and are responsible for the project they are reporting on, which should be held to scrutiny rather than simply accepted, you still are basing a 90% benefit while ignoring 80% of its damages. Possibly it is more. Possibly it is less. Whatever the reality is, we shouldn’t be faced with this guessing game, they should simply state the actual injuries encountered in the full period post jab. The most directly related injuries are found in those undergoing anaphylaxic shock following vaccination and many of those will occur very soon after the injection, though admittedly, the delayed portion may occur some days later. In any event, those people who died from shock following the vaccination are clearly linked to the injection of the vaccines with the nanolipid particle and PEG, both of which may lend themselves towards eliciting such an allergic response. Yet, even these deaths are labeled as ‘unvaccinated’. You can have your own opinions, as we all do, but there should be no fantasy that these opinions are based on fudged data.

    As @Skeezix noted very well

    Both sides of the Discussion – Could use a hell of a lot more scepticism…
    And deep dive analysis..
    Sadly.. it is largly lacking…

    Skepticism is the scrutiny that calls forth reality from imagined successes. This is what science entails. All people have views and built in biases, but each side must be able to explain their inventions as well based concepts or they remain as simple inventions of the mind. Scrutiny should be employed with everything, and always dare to presume the worse case scenario to best protect the patient. Millions have suffered, tens of thousands are dead. Their deaths and injuries stand as a tragic monument to this vaccine obsession based on partial data results, but they will only be a useless tragedy if we continue to ignore the root of the damage cause upon them.

  9. 90% is significant! Vaccine works! In other words you want to great improve your odds of not dying from Covid one would get the booster shot. That is the simple message for anyone trying to understand what it means!

    Calculation came from:

    Researchers studied the data of 843,208 individuals, of whom 758,118 (90%) received the booster (the third dose) during the period of the study.

    In that group, there were 65 deaths due to COVID-19 — 0.16 per 100,000 persons per day.

    In the group of vaccinated individuals who did not receive the booster, 137 died — 2.98 per 100,000 persons per day.

  10. Meaningless headlines..
    Unless you understand Statistics..
    And THOROUGHLY understand the methodology..
    Believe the Math and the Stats can be so manipulated…
    In addition – Who really funded the study, what are the biases?

    You won’t recognize the truth if it bit you on your bottom…
    I wonder how many have been injured and have died.. from the MRna Gene Drive Therapy?
    Both sides of the Discussion – Could use a hell of a lot more scepticism…
    And deep dive analysis..
    Sadly.. it is largly lacking…

  11. Israel now has less 100 serious hospitalized cases (96). First time in many months. Clearly to me the vaccination program has had a very positive effect on the health of Israelis.