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The worrying discovery arrives amid a surge of infections in Israel that has been attributed to the highly contagious Delta variant of coronavirus. According to the latest figures from the World Health Organization (WHO), nearly 11,200 new cases have been reported in the country as of September 2. The surge continues despite more than 13.7 million vaccines already being administered, including an ongoing effort to hand out booster jabs.
A pre-print study put out by researchers in Israel indicates the rise in infections may be linked to the waning effectiveness of Covid vaccines.
The study, which is hosted on the medRxiv server, analysed the viral loads of more than 11,000 people infected during the ongoing wave of infections.
According to the data, people infected within two months of their second jab tend to have lower viral loads when compared to unvaccinated people.
However, the situation appears much murkier six months on from being jabbed, with the study claiming protection against the virus effectively “vanishes”.
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The study reads: “This infectiousness protection starts diminishing for patients two months post-vaccination and ultimately vanishes for patients six months or longer post-vaccination.”
Researchers in Britain have previously found the protection offered by the Pfizer jab wanes within six months.
According to the ZOE COVID Study, the Pfizer vaccine was only 88 to 74 percent as effective five to six months after the second jab.
The study highlighted the potential need for booster shots.
Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist at the Federation of American Scientists (FAS), has now sounded the alarm on the Israeli data.
In a series of tweets, he argued booster shots may be the way forward to bolster the vaccine’s effectiveness against Delta.
He said: “GOOD and BAD news on #DeltaVariant and vaccine effects on viral loads.
“Israel data now clearly shows waning of Pfizer jabs against Delta #COVID19 after two months and then ‘vanishes’ for viral load after [about] six months. The good news is third shot booster work well.
“But, the other bad news is that even with a third shot… after [about] six months there is some modest breakthroughs again (see orange).”
However, the epidemiologist noted the long-term data on vaccine efficacy is still very limited.
Scientists are still confident vaccines offer a way out of the pandemic.
Globally, more than 5.2 billion jabs have already been administered.
In the UK, more than 48 million people have received their first jab and more than 43 million people have received their second jab.
According to the NHS, the available vaccines are safe and effective and “give you the best protection against COVID-19.”
Dr Feigl-Ding said: “To be clear, the protection against severe illness via vaccination is still incredibly good.”
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