New Israeli promo study on 2nd booster raises questions

A new Israeli study on the fourth COVID-19 vaccine dose – the second booster shot – was designed to promote the shot, but it raises more questions than answers. 

The study by Clalit Health Services, Israel’s largest HMO, took a retroactive look at patient data and concluded that the second booster helped lower COVID-19 mortality rates. 

The data was compiled from 563,465 Clalit patients with an average age of 73 years. 328,597 of those patients (58%) had received the second booster shot. The study found that only 92 of those patients died from COVID-19, while 232 of those who had received only the first booster shot died from COVID-19. 

That would appear to be a clear endorsement of the fourth dose. 

But according to leading medical experts from the Public Emergency Council for the COVID-19 Crisis (PECC), a closer look at the study raises several questions. 

Anyone who contracted COVID-19 in the week after receiving their second dose was excluded from the study, and anyone who died from COVID-19 in the week after receiving their second dose was counted as a first-booster death. 

While this may somewhat blur the accuracy of the numbers, the authors do explain that the seven-day period is to allow for the build-up of antibodies. 

Thus, it is possible that the second booster shot does protect from COVID-19 mortality more than the first booster shot. 

But that doesn’t mean the shot won’t kill you. 

According to Figures 1 and 2 of the study, there were 1,596 all-cause deaths during the study period which were not due to COVID-19. But these deaths were omitted from the data. 

“An important drawback of this study is the absence of safety data, as it was out of the scope of this short-term study,” wrote the authors. “Future studies will be needed to assess the safety of the second booster administration.” 

Thus, at best, the vaccine may be effective, but not safe. 

“To the authors of the study: the data is in your hands,” writes Dr. Guy Shinar. “Do not omit it, as you did in previous Clalit studies. You have no right to withhold critical information regarding the overall mortality associated with the vaccine, both from the Israeli public and international academic community. Do not hastily use your partial and deficient research paper for propaganda-purposes to encourage the fourth vaccine shot, before you have made a proper assessment of the safety of the second booster shot (fourth-shot), and in particular the overall mortality associated with it. Do not abuse your position - you may regret it for the rest of your life.”