A national study conducted by researchers at the Gertner Institute for Epidemiology & Health Policy Research found fading protection against Covid 19 after the second dose of the BNT162b2 Vaccine in Israel.

The findings of this study led to the decision to vaccinate the Israeli population with a booster shot; and thereafter other countries adopted this decision too.

The article was published in the New England Journal of Medicine.

A collaborative population study conducted by researchers from the cardiovascular epidemiology and the biostatistics and bio-mathematic units identified the factors associated with low coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) vaccination rates in Israel.

According to the study results, vaccination coverage gaps between population groups in Israel are age and socioeconomic status dependent.

Dr. Amit Huppert and Arnona Ziv, Directors of The Biostatistics and Biomathematics Unit and Information and Computing Unit at the Gertner Institute, are heading a team of data scientists,  in data analysis and model building of parameters pertinent to the Corona epidemic, and are providing information to the Ministry of Health to enable information-based decisions.