Israeli hospital continues pushing 4th dose even after admitting disappointing results

Israel’s Sheba Medical Center Monday announced that it has concluded a month-long study on Pfizer’s fourth dose. The study was commissioned by the Israel Health Ministry after a first study showed disappointing results for the shot. 

But this study, too, was disheartening for the Health Ministry, which in December 2021 had already signed off on injecting the elderly and at-risk populations with the fourth shot, prior to the studies. 

“The vaccine, which was very effective against the previous strains, is less effective against the Omicron strain,” said Sheba’s Infection Prevention and Control Units Director Prof. Gili Regev-Yochay, who was a lead researcher in both studies, according to the Times of Israel. 

“We see an increase in antibodies, higher than after the third dose. However, we see many infected with Omicron who received the fourth dose. Granted, a bit less than in the control group, but still a lot of infections,” she added. 

“The bottom line is that the vaccine is excellent against the Alpha and Delta [variants], for Omicron it’s not good enough,” she said. 

Sheba Medical Center then put out a statement appearing to admit the shot is ineffective while still pushing for “continuing the vaccination drive for risk groups at this time, even though the vaccine doesn’t provide optimal protection against getting infected with the variant.” 

The reason for the conflicting language may be connected to a March meeting during which the Health Ministry bullied Regev-Yochay for calling the fourth shot “disappointing” after the first study. 

Regev-Yochay gave her professional opinion that the fourth vaccine – the second booster – is not effective against the new “wave” of COVID-19 nor is it effective against severe illness, as the booster does not provide a high level of antibodies.  

At this, Director of Public Health Services Dr. Sharon Alroy-Price, along with Ministry of Health Director-General Nachman Ash, accused Regev-Yochay of sabotaging the government’s fourth vaccination campaign. The discussion became quite animated. 

“There was no [overt] sense of censoring in the discussion,” said one meeting attendee, “but certainly a feeling that there is one track and that it is difficult to say a different opinion in the presence of Sharon Alroy-Price and the director-general. If this is a committee that advises them, why are they part of the discussion?” 

“It is rare that there is such a conflict,” said another. “They found [Regev] as a scapegoat for the fourth vaccine.”  

“The fourth-dose vaccination campaign did not fail because of Prof. Regev's statement,” another member said. “…It should have been said that the vaccine is not effective against infection. People found that even if they did everything they were told and got vaccinated with the third and fourth vaccines, they were still infected.”