Sapir’s Ronen Arbel in the New England Journal of Medicine

Sapir lecturer's research recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine

Back in August 2021, Israel took a calculated risk to stem the fourth wave of COVID-19 infections. With no substantiating data to go by, the country rapidly deployed a third, booster shot of Pfizer’s Corona vaccine, a campaign that has since reached over 4 million people. Did it work? Now the results are in – and they’re striking. Dr. Ronen Arbel of Sapir Academic College, has just published convincing scientific evidence in the New England Journal of Medicine that the booster really saves lives. Together with Dr. Doron Netzter of Clalit Health Services and Dr. Michael Friger of Ben Gurion University, Arbel analyzed figures on almost 850,000 patients over 50 years old at Clalit, Israel’s largest HMO. It turns out that subjects who received a third booster shot − five months after their second dose of the Pfizer vaccine had a 90% lower mortality rate than participants who did not. That’s a tenfold increase in the chances of surviving COVID-19.  This study, the world’s largest to date on the subject, will be carefully read by decision-makers around the world, struggling to contend with the new Omicron variant. Arbel, of the Maximizing Health Outcomes Research Lab at Sapir, is optimistic but cautious. As the epidemiology of COVID-19 evolves, new research on the booster will undoubtedly be needed.  Arbel’s work is a critical start.