EDITORIAL: Coronavirus vaccine works wonders in Israel

The success of the coronavirus vaccine in Israel looks more like a miracle than what could be reasonably expected from a medical breakthrough. That offers more hope for the United States.

Israel is the world leader in vaccine distribution. More than 45 percent of its population has received at least one dose. That includes more than 90 percent of those 60 and older. There’s no longer any reason to speculate about the effectiveness of the vaccines. You can study the real-world results, which are nothing short of astounding.

Among the 523,000 adults receiving both doses of the Pfizer vaccine, only 544 contracted the virus. An Israeli health care company compared those results with a control group of individuals who hadn’t received the virus. It put the vaccine’s effectiveness at 93 percent.

The news gets better. Just 15 of those who contracted the virus required hospitalization, and none has died. The Maccabi Healthcare Services released these results last week.

Then a research group with Clalit, an Israeli HMO, released an even larger study of 600,000 people who had received the vaccine. It had similar results. The vaccinated population had 94 percent fewer symptomatic cases of the coronavirus compared with the control group. The number of serious illnesses dropped by more than 90 percent.

This study included 170,000 people who are 70 and older. It found the vaccine was just as effective for the elderly as for younger recipients. This is yet more encouraging news because the coronavirus poses a disproportionate danger to older individuals.

The vaccine is so effective that there are now more people under 60 being hospitalized with the coronavirus in Israel than those 60 and older. That reverses a long-standing trend. This is yet more evidence that the coronavirus vaccine works because those older than 60 are more likely to have received the vaccine.

Thanks to the groundwork put in the place by the Trump administration, the United States has distributed more vaccines than any country in the world. Israel is far superior on a per-capita basis, though.

Nevada is making progress, too. More than 10 percent of Nevadans have now received at least one dose. Health officials are administering around 12,000 vaccines every day. Almost 40 percent of Nevada’s administered dose have gone to those 70 and older.

It’s unlikely vaccines alone are driving Nevada’s current plunge in new cases. But the results from Israel suggest that widespread vaccine distribution can keep cases at a low and manageable level, even if the virus surges again.

After a very tough year, it’s nice to have such a concrete reason for optimism.