Israel’s huge vaccine trial just isn’t maintaining with new instances – particularly amongst youthful victims

For the first time since the pandemic began, Israel says more than a quarter of the most serious Covid-19 cases requiring hospitalization occur in patients under the age of 60.

The Israeli Ministry of Health blames a new strain first discovered in the UK last month.

Dr. Itamar Grotto, Deputy Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Health, said: “This is because the new British variant is more contagious, especially among young people and children.”

The news that Israel’s hospitals now have a record number of serious Covid cases came within 24 hours of Israel launching a “second dose”. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the first to get his second shot yesterday.

Israel has been commended by the global health community for moving to vaccination so quickly. So far, nearly two million Israelis have received their first shot from around 9 million people. Israel has a highly centralized health system in which everyone has to register in a digital system, which makes it easier for the Ministry of Health to organize the vaccination campaign across the country.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will receive the second dose of the vaccine against the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) on January 9, 2021 at the Sheba Medical Center in Ramat Gan near the coastal city of Tel Aviv.

MIRIAM ALSTER | AFP | Getty Images

Despite its success on the vaccine front, Israel is currently in its third nationwide lockdown due to the virus spreading. Without downplaying concerns about the rising percentage of younger people hospitalized with serious infections, epidemiologist Grotto points out that nearly 70% of Israelis over the age of 60 received their first shot, which gives them some immunity.

CNBC employee and former FDA chief Dr. Scott Gottlieb has been keeping an eye on trends in Israel and Europe since the pandemic started a year ago, and used them as a possible model for what could happen in the US, including the relatively newly discovered British variant.

“If we can use the vaccine, we can probably fight it off,” Gottlieb said, referring to the more dangerous, faster-spreading strain.

He believes the recent and alarming surge in cases in the United States is more related to vacation travel and gatherings, “but the bottom line is that we don’t have a good enough surveillance system to know for sure,” said Gottlieb.

The British variant officially only accounts for 0.2% of the US cases. Gottlieb also warned U.S. health officials that they are not yet looking so carefully for the increasingly dangerous burden ravaging an overstretched South African health system.