A woman receives a booster shot of her COVID-19 vaccination at an assisted living facility in Netanya, Israel, on Jan. 19, 2021.
RONEN ZVULUN/Reuters
Israel’s swift vaccination rollout has made it the largest real-world study of Pfizer Inc’s COVID-19 vaccine. Results are trickling in, and they are promising.
More than half of eligible Israelis – about 3.5 million people – have now been fully or partially vaccinated. Older and at-risk groups, the first to be inoculated, are seeing a dramatic drop in illnesses.
Among the first fully-vaccinated group there was a 53 per cent reduction in new cases, a 39 per cent decline in hospitalizations and a 31 per cent drop in severe illnesses from mid-January until Feb. 6, said Eran Segal, data scientist at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel.
In the same period, among people under age 60 who became eligible for shots later, new cases dropped 20 per cent but hospitalizations and severe illness rose 15 per cent and 29 per cent, respectively.
Reuters interviewed leading scientists in Israel and abroad, Israeli health officials, hospital heads and two of the country’s largest health care providers about what new data shows from the world’s most efficient vaccine rollout.
The vaccine drive has provided a database offering insights into how effective the vaccines are outside of controlled clinical trials, and at what point countries might attain sought-after but elusive herd immunity.
More will be known in two weeks, as teams analyze vaccine effectiveness in younger groups of Israelis, as well as targeted populations such as people with diabetes, cancer and pregnant women, among a patient base at least 10 times larger than those in clinical studies.
“We need to have enough variety of people in that subgroup and enough follow-up time so you can make the right conclusions, and we are getting to that point,” said Ran Balicer, chief innovation officer of HMO Clalit, which covers more than half the Israeli population.
Pfizer is monitoring the Israeli rollout on a weekly basis for insights that can be used around the world.
As a small country with universal health care, advanced data capabilities and the promise of a swift rollout, Israel provided Pfizer with a unique opportunity to study the real-world impact of the vaccine developed with Germany’s BioNTech
But the company said it remained “difficult to forecast the precise time when herd protection may start to manifest” because of many variables at play, including social distancing measures and the number of new infections generated by each case, known as the reproduction rate.
Even Israel, in the vanguard of the global vaccine drive, has lowered expectations of emerging quickly from the pandemic because of soaring cases.
A third national lockdown has struggled to contain transmission, attributed to the fast-spreading U.K. variant of the virus. On a positive note, the Pfizer/BioNTech shot appears to be effective against it.
“We’ve so far identified the same 90 per cent to 95 per cent efficacy against the British strain,” said Hezi Levi, director-general of the Israeli Health Ministry.
“It is still early though, because we have only now finished the first week after the second dose,” he said, adding: “It’s too early to say anything about the South African variant.”
WHICH ARM?
Israel began its vaccination program Dec. 19 – the day after Hanukkah – after paying a premium for supplies of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
Four days later, the more contagious U.K. variant was detected in four people. While the vaccine is preventing illness in older people, the variant now makes up about 80 per cent of new cases.
Finding themselves in a race between the vaccine and the new variant, Israel began giving shots to those over 60 and gradually opened the program to the rest of the population.
Every detail was digitally tracked, down to in which arm the patient was jabbed and what vial it came from.
One week after receiving the second Pfizer dose – the point at which full protection is expected to kick in – 254 out of 416,900 people were infected, according to Maccabi, a leading Israeli health care provider.
Comparing this against an unvaccinated group revealed a vaccine efficacy of 91 per cent, Maccabi said.
By 22 days after full vaccination, no infections were recorded.
Israeli experts are confident the vaccines rather than lockdown measures brought the numbers down, based on studying different cities, age groups and pre-vaccine lockdowns.
The comparisons were “convincing in telling us this is the effect of the vaccination,” said Weizmann Institute’s Segal.
With 80 per cent of senior citizens partially or fully vaccinated, a more complete picture will begin to emerge as soon as this week.
“And we do expect further decline in the overall cases and in the cases of severe morbidity,” said Balicer, of HMO Clalit.
The large number of COVID-19 infections in some places makes it more likely for new variants of the virus to emerge. Science Reporter Ivan Semeniuk explains how vaccines may not be as effective against these new strains, making it a race to control and track the spread of variants before they become a dangerous new outbreak.The Globe and Mail
VACCINES AND TRANSMISSION
There may be early signs that vaccinations are tamping down virus transmission in addition to illness.
At Israel’s biggest COVID-19 testing centre, run by MyHeritage, researchers have tracked a significant decrease in the amount of virus infected people carry, known as cT value, among the most-vaccinated age groups.
This suggests that even if vaccinated people get infected, they are less likely to infect others, said MyHeritage Chief Science Officer Yaniv Erlich.
“The data so far is probably most clear from Israel. I do believe that these vaccines will reduce onward transmission,” said Stefan Baral, from Johns Hopkins School of Public Health in Maryland.
DIMINISHING RETURNS
It is unclear whether Israel will be able to keep up its world-leading vaccination pace.
“When you vaccinate fast and a lot, you eventually get to the hardcore – those who are less willing or harder to reach,” said Boaz Lev, head of the Health Ministry’s advisory panel.
The vaccination pace is seen even more crucial with the British variant’s rapid transmission.
“In the race between the U.K. variant spreading and the vaccinations, the end result is that we are seeing a kind of plateau in terms of the severely ill,” said Segal.
The big question is whether vaccines can eradicate the pandemic.
Michal Linial, a professor of molecular biology and bioinformatics at Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, said data from past decades suggests viruses become endemic and seasonal.
She predicted this coronavirus would become far less aggressive, perhaps requiring a booster shot within three years.
TORONTO – Roots Corp. may have built its brand on all things comfy and cosy, but its CEO says activewear is now “really becoming a core part” of the brand.
The category, which at Roots spans leggings, tracksuits, sports bras and bike shorts, has seen such sustained double-digit growth that Meghan Roach plans to make it a key part of the business’ future.
“It’s an area … you will see us continue to expand upon,” she told analysts on a Friday call.
The Toronto-based retailer’s push into activewear has taken shape over many years and included several turns as the official designer and supplier of Team Canada’s Olympic uniform.
But consumers have had plenty of choice when it comes to workout gear and other apparel suited to their sporting needs. On top of the slew of athletic brands like Nike and Adidas, shoppers have also gravitated toward Lululemon Athletica Inc., Alo and Vuori, ramping up competition in the activewear category.
Roach feels Roots’ toehold in the category stems from the fit, feel and following its merchandise has cultivated.
“Our product really resonates with (shoppers) because you can wear it through multiple different use cases and occasions,” she said.
“We’ve been seeing customers come back again and again for some of these core products in our activewear collection.”
Her remarks came the same day as Roots revealed it lost $5.2 million in its latest quarter compared with a loss of $5.3 million in the same quarter last year.
The company said the second-quarter loss amounted to 13 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended Aug. 3, the same as a year earlier.
In presenting the results, Roach reminded analysts that the first half of the year is usually “seasonally small,” representing just 30 per cent of the company’s annual sales.
Sales for the second quarter totalled $47.7 million, down from $49.4 million in the same quarter last year.
The move lower came as direct-to-consumer sales amounted to $36.4 million, down from $37.1 million a year earlier, as comparable sales edged down 0.2 per cent.
The numbers reflect the fact that Roots continued to grapple with inventory challenges in the company’s Cooper fleece line that first cropped up in its previous quarter.
Roots recently began to use artificial intelligence to assist with daily inventory replenishments and said more tools helping with allocation will go live in the next quarter.
Beyond that time period, the company intends to keep exploring AI and renovate more of its stores.
It will also re-evaluate its design ranks.
Roots announced Friday that chief product officer Karuna Scheinfeld has stepped down.
Rather than fill the role, the company plans to hire senior level design talent with international experience in the outdoor and activewear sectors who will take on tasks previously done by the chief product officer.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 13, 2024.
VANCOUVER – Mediated talks between the union representing HandyDART workers in Metro Vancouver and its employer, Transdev, are set to resume today as a strike that has stopped most services drags into a second week.
No timeline has been set for the length of the negotiations, but Joe McCann, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1724, says they are willing to stay there as long as it takes, even if talks drag on all night.
About 600 employees of the door-to-door transit service for people unable to navigate the conventional transit system have been on strike since last Tuesday, pausing service for all but essential medical trips.
Hundreds of drivers rallied outside TransLink’s head office earlier this week, calling for the transportation provider to intervene in the dispute with Transdev, which was contracted to oversee HandyDART service.
Transdev said earlier this week that it will provide a reply to the union’s latest proposal on Thursday.
A statement from the company said it “strongly believes” that their employees deserve fair wages, and that a fair contract “must balance the needs of their employees, clients and taxpayers.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MONTREAL – Travel company Transat AT Inc. reported a loss in its latest quarter compared with a profit a year earlier as its revenue edged lower.
The parent company of Air Transat says it lost $39.9 million or $1.03 per diluted share in its quarter ended July 31.
The result compared with a profit of $57.3 million or $1.49 per diluted share a year earlier.
Revenue in what was the company’s third quarter totalled $736.2 million, down from $746.3 million in the same quarter last year.
On an adjusted basis, Transat says it lost $1.10 per share in its latest quarter compared with an adjusted profit of $1.10 per share a year earlier.
Transat chief executive Annick Guérard says demand for leisure travel remains healthy, as evidenced by higher traffic, but consumers are increasingly price conscious given the current economic uncertainty.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
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