What the world can learn about immunity from Israel’s vaccine rollout
Israel's extraordinary vaccination program has provided a wealth of information about the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and its impact.
January 27, 2021, 7:00 am
A nurse prepares a Covid-19 vaccine injection in Kiryat Ye'arim outside Jerusalem. Photo by Yonatan Sindel/Flash90
More than 1.3 million Israelis have already received both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech.
By design, this fast rollout is providing Pfizer – and the rest of us – with the first critical real-world data on brand-new mRNA vaccines.
This type of vaccine instructs cells to make a “spike” protein that triggers the immune system to produce antibodies against the matching spike protein on the surface of the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus, which causes Covid-19.