Disinformation: In Israel, the number of deaths from vaccination is 40 times higher as compared to deaths from the coronavirus.
Verdict: FAKE NEWS
The Georgia and the World newspaper promoted an item of disinformation in regard to the vaccine roll out in Israel. In particular, the 10 March 2021 article which was also shared on Facebook contains a claim that deaths among the elderly from the Pfizer vaccine (wrongly referred to as Ptizer in the article) in Israel is 40 times higher as compared to the number of deaths from the coronavirus. According to the article, this specific information is based on the scientific study of the Aix-Marseille University for Tropical Diseases which was published by the Ministry of Healthcare of Israel. In addition, according to the article, the number of deaths from vaccination among young people is much higher as compared to the deaths from the coronavirus. The identical information was also published on the georgia.shafaqna.com website.
The scientific study to which Georgia and the World is referring and which should confirm the aforementioned figures of the number of deaths from vaccination cannot be found. This informational content was also not published on the Israeli Ministry of Healthcare’s website nor can it be found on the official website of the University Hospital Institute for Infectious and Tropical Diseases (Aix-Marseille University). At the time of the article’s publication on 10 March 2021, Israel had the highest share of vaccinated population (57%) in the world with at least one dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
At the time of the publication of the aforementioned article, the number of deaths from the coronavirus in Israel was 5,950. Neither at the time of the article’s publication nor as of today has a case of a death from vaccination been reported in Israel.
Israel started to vaccinate its population on 20 December 2020 for healthcare workers and people over the age of 60 years. Israel started to vaccinate people aged 50 years and above on 13 January 2021. It started vaccination among people over the age of 35 years on 28 January and then opened vaccination for all people over the age of 16 years from 4 February 2021. After Israel expanded the eligible groups for the vaccines to encompass all people, the epidemic situation in the country gradually stabilised despite the epidemic outbreak in the country which followed the emergence of the British COVID-10 variant (Lineage B.1.1.7) from 23 December 2020. Therefore, the numbers of confirmed cases and lethal outcomes dropped significantly in light of Israel’s vaccine roll out.
As of February 2021, the number of symptomatic COVID-19 cases among vaccinated people in Israel shrank by 94%. According to Israel’s official reports, less than 0.3% of the total vaccinated population showed side effects after being vaccinated with the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.
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