Serological Test Reveals That Netanyahu, Israel’s 1st Person To Vaccinate for COVID-19, Has Few Antibodies Left
JERUSALEM (VINnews) — During the last few days former prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been very vocal in calling for a third COVID-19 vaccine shot for everyone in Israel. Netanyahu said that the third doses had been paid for and ordered already and questioned why the Israeli government is delaying providing the doses for the public. In the wake of Netanyahu’s demand, the government decided Thursday to issue a third dose to everyone over the age of 60 in Israel.
What is less known is what led Netanyahu to canvas so aggressively for the third shot. The former prime minister was the first person in Israel to receive the COVID-19 vaccine last December and recently, while he was on vacation, he took a serological test measuring the level of antibodies in his blood. The test revealed that Netanyahu has almost no antibodies left against coronavirus. Netanyahu realized, due to that test, that people’s vaccines are swiftly losing their potency, especially those people who got vaccinated early on in January, and therefore they need a booster.
Netanyahu’s discovery and conclusion are regardless of the variants, including the new Delta variant which has led to increased infection and a spike in serious cases in Israel over the last month. Netanyahu believes that people are losing their protection in general and even if the vaccine would do a good job protecting form the new variant, it has mostly worn off by now and is not providing enough protection.
Netanyahu’s office did not confirm the report but said that “the antibody levels against coronavirus have decreased in millions of Israelis since the second shot. That’s the reason the former prime minister ordered and paid for millions of extra doses for a third shot.”
“That’s why he has been calling for more than a month to bring these shots to Israel,” his office added. “The fact that the current government has not done so until now is a failure that will cost many lives.”
