Israel May Switch To Policy Of Herd Immunity Through Mass Infection As Vaccines Fail Against Omicron

One of the most vaccinated nation Israel may switch to the policy of herd immunity to be achieved through mass infection as the vaccines have failed to curb the rising cases of COVID-19 Omicron variant.

As reported by GreatGameIndia earlier, the massive surge of COVID-19 infections in Israel, one of the most vaccinated countries on earth, is nothing less than a disaster. The Israel vaccine crisis should be a warning to the rest of the world.

Earlier in April last year, the Israeli Peoples Committee (IPC), a civilian body made of leading Israeli health experts, published its report into the Pfizer vaccine’s side effects indicating damage to almost every system in the human body.

Now, according to data released Wednesday, Israel registered over 3,000 new coronavirus cases for the second day in a row, as the infection rate kept rising and senior Health Ministry officials were considering switching to a policy of herd immunity through mass infection.

On Tuesday, the ministry stated, 2.48 percent of all tests proved positive, a new record for the current wave, which is being driven by the extremely contagious Omicron strain.

In the country, there have been 17,260 active cases, well over double the number from a week ago. The R0 figure, which represents the average number of patients infected by each virus carrier, increased from 1.47 to 1.53, signifying that the outbreak is worsening.

For the very first instance, the majority of Omicron infections were found in the general population, rather than in those who had recently returned from overseas or those they came into contact with, implying that the genuine numbers are likely far higher than the actual figures.

The large increase in infections, on the other hand, has yet to convert into an increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations and severe cases. There have been 88 serious patients, which is the same as in recent weeks, with 39 on ventilators and 18 on ECMO devices.

The death toll stood at 8,243, with three additional deaths in the last eight days.

In view of the lack of an obvious increase in serious disease, Channel 12 news reported Tuesday evening that senior Health Ministry officials had lately raised the possibility of transitioning to a “mass infection model.”

That would be comparable to Sweden’s COVID experiment during the early stages of the pandemic, when the country decided not to enforce severe restrictions on those who aren’t in high-risk groups in order to maintain normalcy while the pandemic progressed and eventually Sweden managed to achieve herd immunity.

The increased frequency of the Omicron variant — which is more contagious than the Delta strain but induces milder disease — has prompted Israeli officials to consider such a move.

The lack of willingness to impose a lockdown and the decelerated rate of vaccination for children, according to the report, “don’t enable any other model.”

Authorities expect that 90 percent of COVID-19 infections in Israel will just be Omicron within two weeks.

Meanwhile, a large Israeli study has demonstrated the power of the human immune system over vaccines.

The natural immune protection that develops after a SARS-CoV-2 infection offers considerably more of a shield against the Delta variant of the pandemic coronavirus than two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, according to a large Israeli study.

The newly released data show people who once had a SARS-CoV-2 infection were much less likely than vaccinated people to get Delta, develop symptoms from it, or become hospitalized with serious COVID-19.

The study shows that double vaccinated people were six to 13 times more likely to get infected than unvaccinated people who were previously infected with the coronavirus. The study demonstrates the power of the human immune system.