Yesterday, NHE (Japanese National TV) reported on data from Israel. They showed that far fewer than 1% of the vaccinated population has gotten sick or died. The vaccines were both measured at 95% efficiency before deployment. The new data from Israel shows they are much better than that.
Since vaccinations began, all of the new infections and deaths in Israel have been in the remaining unvaccinated population, and among people not previously infected. That is ~54% of the population (40% vaccinated plus 6% previously infected). Infections are not increasing. If the rest of the population is vaccinated, the epidemic within Israel will go extinct. If a more virulent strain spreads before the rest of the population can be vaccinated, the numbers of infections and deaths might increase, but this increase will not be caused by a problem with the vaccine.
Here is the data for Israel. The rate of decrease is disappointing. Perhaps this indicates the more virulent strain is circulating:
https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/israel/
In the U.S. the virulent new strains might kill ~300,000 more people, unless we increase the use of masks, social distancing, testing, and we vaccinate more quickly. See:
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/0…ion/new-covid-strain.html
Quote:
“What we need to do right now is to plan for the worst case scenario,” Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, told me. “And when I say ‘worst case,’ I’m potentially talking about the most likely case. Let’s not wait until we wrap the car around the tree to start pumping the brakes.”