• On Sunday, Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis told CBS' Face the Nation that Israel is observing evidence of waning immunity to COVID-19 in fully vaccinated individuals - particularly those who were vaccinated early on: "If we compare people ... who were immunized early on, so were fully vaccinated by the end of January, we see infection rate among them that is 90 per 100,000 which is double that of those who were fully vaccinated in March."
  • Dr. Alroy-Preis said they are seeing waning immunity in people over the age of 60, along with people between the ages of 16 to 59, with about 50% of the people who currently have COVID-19 infections being fully vaccinated.
• Because Israeli health officials are seeing waning immunity over time, along with seeing "increased severe and critical condition ... among the 60 and above population who are fully immunized," they have started to allow those 60 and older to have access to a third, booster shot of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.

Big Picture: Israel has high vaccination rates (nearly 60% of the population fully vaccinated) and early vaccination rates, first administering vaccines in December of 2020. As Israel begins administering booster shots to those over the age of 60, questions remain about if other countries will follow along and if the data being collected in the U.S. also will begin to show waning immunity to COVID-19 the longer individuals have been fully vaccinated.

Israeli health chief explains decision to begin COVID-19 booster shots