Israel government sparks outrage over Pfizer vaccine conclusions

Israel’s Health Ministry has sparked outrage among medical experts over its conclusions on Pfizer’s mRNA COVID-19 vaccine.

Israeli studies on the COVID-19 vaccines, nearly all of which declared the shots safe and effective, have had a large influence in driving vaccination campaigns across the world, particularly in the administration of boosters and vaccination of pregnant women.

In a recent publication from Israel’s Health Ministry released last month, and reported on by Frontline News when it was still prerelease, researchers looked at 1,815 people who died after receiving the first two Pfizer doses. The “examination,” as the ministry calls it, found that 540 deaths came in the 30 days following the injections, while 1,275 deaths came within the next 30 days.

Since most vaccinated deaths occurred in the second month following the shots, the Health Ministry concluded that they could not possibly have been caused by the vaccine.

The ministry also tried to explain away the lower number of deaths in the first 30 days by citing “the vaccinee effect” according to which people who come to get vaccinated are generally healthier than the general population.

But this explanation did not sit well with medical experts.

Lecturer and medical researcher Dr. Yaffa Shir-Raz told Frontline News that the Health Ministry specifically recommended the vaccine for patients with underlying illnesses, comorbidities, and the elderly. In fact, the ministry prioritized these groups for the vaccine, casting doubt on the claim that mostly healthier people took the vaccine.

“Alternatively, if we adopt their explanation and assume that indeed, only healthy people went and got vaccinated – this is even worse actually, because if all those people were perfectly healthy – why did their chance to die suddenly skyrocket like that after 60 days?” questioned Dr. Shir-Raz.

Notably, the examination did not include unvaccinated people or those who tested positive for COVID-19.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of Management Professor Retsef Levi, an expert in risk management and healthcare systems, called the Health Ministry’s conclusion “very, very disturbing”. According to The Epoch Times, Levi said there are health mechanisms which can delay vaccine caused death, raising questions as to why the ministry decided to make 30-60 days the control period.

“One possibility that needs to be considered is a delayed allergic response (possibly due to repeat exposure to [polyethylene glycol]),” senior hematologist Dr. Michal Haran wrote on Twitter. 

The government researchers also studied hospitalizations for acute cardiovascular events among the vaccinated. Those who were unvaccinated or positive for COVID-19 were excluded, as were those who developed myocarditis, since this is an acknowledged adverse reaction to the mRNA vaccines.

The study looked at 4,057 cases of acute cardiovascular events among the vaccinated, though it did not specify which diagnoses were included. Of these, 1,979 occurred in the first 30 days following the shots and 2,078 occurred in the second 30-day period.

Again, the ministry concluded that this proved there is no increased cardiovascular risk from the injections since most cases occurred in the second 30 days.

“No indication of an increased risk was found in the time period of 30 days after vaccination compared to the time period of 31–60 days, nor in the additional sensitivity analyses,” the authors wrote.

Levi slammed the researchers for not having “done many things that you would expect them to do.”

Haran similarly criticized the study’s authors for failing to even wonder “[w]hat would cause these people (that their life expectancy is high) to die in the following weeks?”

"The authors themselves are very careful not to call it a study," Dr. Shir-Raz said. “Instead, they are using the term ‘examination’ (in Hebrew, 'Bdika'). Furthermore, they have only published it in Hebrew, as a PDF file, not even in English so that the international community could read it, not even as a pre-print, let alone publishing it in the scientific literature. One should ask why.”

The study also looked at cardiovascular events among young vaccinated people 0–29 years old and found that, in fact, 20 such cases happened within 30 days of the shots, compared to just 12 during the second 30 days following the shots. According to the researchers’ methods, this should have led to the conclusion that the vaccines cause cardiovascular events among young vaccinated people. However, the researchers instead said that the overall amount of cases were too low to make a difference.

“There is a signal of a 70 percent increase in the risk of hospitalization,” Levi said, “but they only claim that the signal is not specifically significant because there are not many cases.”

The Health Ministry did not respond to a Frontline News request for comment on a peer-reviewed study from MIT last year which found that a recent 25% increase in cardiac events in young men is directly correlated to the COVID-19 vaccines. 

The MIT researchers studied emergency calls in Israel, one of the most highly vaccinated countries in the world, over a two-and-a-half-year period spanning 2019–2021. Specifically, they looked at emergency calls reporting either cardiac arrests (CA) or acute coronary syndrome (ACS) in the 16–39 age group. 

The MIT study also aimed to determine if the uptick in cardiovascular events was associated with COVID-19 or the COVID-19 vaccine. The findings showed that for the period January–May 2021 there was a 25% increase in emergency cardiovascular events compared with the same period in 2019 and 2020, and entirely associated with the COVID-19 shot.  

“Using Negative Binomial regression models, the weekly emergency call counts were significantly associated with the rates of 1st and 2nd vaccine doses administered to this age group but were not with COVID-19 infection rates,” says the MIT study.  

The authors then question the safety of the vaccine saying the study “underscores the need for the thorough investigation of the apparent association between COVID-19 vaccine administration and adverse cardiovascular outcomes among young adults.” 

The Health Ministry’s methods of conclusion are similar to those of Pfizer.

In its “Cumulative Analysis of Post-Authorization Adverse Events Reports,” Pfizer analyzed 42,086 adverse events from the COVID vaccine up to February 28, 2021. Of those events, Pfizer reports 300 cases of cerebrovascular venous and sinus thrombosis (CVST), which is 0.71% of the total number of cases.  

Of the 300 CVST cases, Pfizer's report records 61 fatalities, 61 resolved/resolving, 10 resolved with sequelae — where the illness leaves behind a lasting condition, 85 unresolved and 83 unknown.  

But Pfizer’s verdict was the opposite of the study’s authors.  

“Conclusion: This cumulative case review does not raise new safety issues. Surveillance will continue.”