Israel has begun trials for a fourth dose of the COVID-19 vaccine for healthy patients as it seeks to roll out additional booster shots to at-risk populations. Sheba Medical Center said it is the first time in the world that healthy subjects are receiving the fourth shot of the Kovid-19 vaccine.
About 150 health workers whose antibody levels have fallen are part of a test at Sheba Medical Center outside Tel Aviv.
“I don’t feel as much as a guinea pig,” Dr. Jacob Lavi, former director of the Heart Transplant Unit at Shiba Medical Center, told CNN. “I volunteered for the research I’ve done here in previous shots, primarily the booster shot, because I know my own immunity has dropped below the threshold, and therefore, not only am I potentially exposed to Omicron , but more importantly, I could be a potential threat to the heart transplant patients I am caring for.”
On 21 December, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett welcomed a decision by a panel of experts to recommend additional boosters for people over the age of 60, health care workers and those with suppressed immune systems. But the Director General of the Ministry of Health has not yet signed it.
“Amazing news, don’t waste time – get vaccinated,” Bennett said in a statement at the time.
The government said in a statement that it will be given to those eligible for the fourth dose, provided at least four months have elapsed since the third dose.
“The State of Israel stands at the forefront of the global effort to combat the pandemic. The citizens of Israel were the first in the world to receive the third dose of the COVID-19 vaccine and we have been leading with the fourth dose as well,” Bennett said.
Preliminary results of the study are expected by the end of that week, by which time Israel’s growing Covid-19 caseload will become even more overwhelming.
“I don’t think it’s right at the moment, but it could change in a week,” Dr. Gili-Regev Yochai, director of the Infection Prevention Control Unit at Sheba Medical Center, told CNN. “It depends what we see is happening in England, and here too – if we see that there is more severe disease, that would probably be correct. That’s why it’s so important to start research ASAP.”