The Covid-19 Vaccine: The Israel Case Study - Part 3
Israel was the first nation to vaccinate the majority of its population. As such, the rest of the world can look to it to better understand the progression of “getting back to normal”. Organizations can take note of their experience and apply lessons learned to their own COVID-19 safety plan.
How Has COVID-19 Affected Israel in 2021?
Earlier in 2021, Israel was looked to as the model for vaccinations and for nearly stopping COVID-19 in its tracks. It was the first nation to vaccinate the majority of its population and enjoyed low infection rates from March through July, including some days with no new cases. However, this has changed over the past month, and it is currently experiencing some of the world's highest daily infection rates.
This new wave for Israel is in part related to waning vaccine efficacy. Over time, the vaccine’s ability to protect against COVID-19 decreases. These breakthrough cases were typically seen among older populations, whereas cases among unvaccinated individuals were usually young “healthy” people. The positive around breakthrough cases were that vaccinated patients tended to recover more quickly and experience less severe infections.
To help with this surge of breakthrough cases, Israel has begun to administer booster shots as the initial vaccination is not offering the protection we had hoped it would. This furthers concerns around vaccine supply globally discussed in the first post of the series. If more wealthy nations begin administering 3rd doses to their citizens, the vaccination rate in less wealthy areas may be impacted. This then creates a cyclical issue of supply, rollout discrepancy, and further infection.
Another factor that contributed to the massive increase in daily cases in Israel was the dismantling of their contact tracing system. Prior to wide-spread vaccination, Israel had 3,000 contact tracers operating, who were able to execute 6,000 investigations each day. This was dismantled as the vaccine rollout progressed, however, and this has impacted the ability for Israel to perform the necessary contact tracing. In a 3 day period from August 6th-8th, Israel recorded 10,000 new COVID-19 cases. Because they had dismantled much of their contact tracing abilities, only 40% of cases were able to be investigated by August 9th. This leaves 6,000 untraced cases where known contacts were continuing about their daily life. Presumably these contacts were notified and isolated within a few days, but the spread could have already continued.
What Can Organizations Learn From Israel?
Looking at Israel, we can all take away 6 lessons:
Immunity from the vaccine dips over time
The Delta variant broke through the vaccine's waning protection
If you get infected, being vaccinated helps
Israel's high vaccination rate isn't high enough
Vaccinations are key, but they are not enough
Booster shots offer more protection
Now what does this mean for organizations? Given the dip in immunity from the vaccine, the presence of variants, and the risk posed to the unvaccinated, unfortunately it is unlikely that we will be leaving our COVID-19 safety plans behind any time soon.
Following recent evidence around Delta, the CDC reintroduced its masking recommendation for all, as this would lessen the risk to the unvaccinated and those who were unable to be vaccinated, as well as reduce spread among those who were vaccinated. They also continue to recommend that organizations introduce multiple layers of protection, such as social distancing, masking, and proper cleaning. This aligns with the experience seen in Israel; because they had begun to return to “normal” the most recent wave hit hard and fast as fewer controls were in place to prevent spread. Many organizations may wish to reimplement their masking policy to help prevent the spread among any unvaccinated employees.
One of the biggest areas that OSHA identifies as opportunities to mitigate the transmission COVID-19 are in spaces of close contact. Implementing a tool like Proxxi Contact that provides social distancing notifications to employees can help in both of these cases. The employees are aware of their contact with one another, and are able to use the wristband to identify when they have stepped too close.
protecting employees from delta
With Israel, we can see the inability to perform effective and efficient contact tracing played a part in the spread of COVID-19. With a robust and comprehensive contact tracing system in place, fewer people will likely have to isolate themselves and employees will feel more confident in the validity of the contact tracing. Additionally, the business will likely see a smaller impact to the bottom line. Investing in solutions like digital contact tracing can take contact tracing from hours to minutes, and vastly improves the accuracy. Many countries, including the US and Canada, state that employers are obligated to investigate and report confirmed COVID-19 cases. Having an efficient contact tracing tool will make the impact of having to perform this task much less on your employees and their productivity.
As the world continues to navigate the ever-changing waters of COVID-19, ensuring that your organization goes beyond compliant and into comprehensive will help ensure the most minimal impact from COVID-19 on your organization.
Data in this article was collected on 20/08/2021 and may not reflect current statistics or standards