The race for Israel's homegrown COVID-19 vaccine
HEALTH AFFAIRS: The father of the BriLife initiative explains Israel’s strategic imperative to have its own vaccine.

https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wel...vaccine-680755

Israel is on the verge of finalizing a COVID-19 vaccine whose creators believe could offer better protection against variants than its international counterparts such as Pfizer. Prof. Shmuel Shapira, predicted that when the country’s vaccine is ready, “it will be better” than what its citizens have today.

“We opted for an approach that is, on the one hand, modern and, on the other, more conservative and less bold than the other vaccine makers chose,” Shapira said, explaining that BriLife is based on a technology that has been in existence for three or four years and has already proven to be successful against the deadly Ebola virus. BriLife is a vector-based vaccine. The vaccine takes the vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) and genetically engineers it so that it will express the spike protein of the novel coronavirus on its envelope.

Once injected, it does not cause disease by itself. Instead, the body recognizes the spike protein that is expressed on the envelope and begins to develop an immunological response. Moreover, unlike other vaccines, this one binds to the exact cell in the lung that is targeted by the novel coronavirus.

On August 6, 2020, Shapira appeared on Zoom with the prime minister and told him and the public, “Six months ago, you dispatched us to bring a vaccine and antibodies to the State of Israel. We have carried out the mission, and are carrying it out in the best way possible. We have an excellent vaccine. This is the first vial of the vaccine; since last Thursday, we have a vaccine.”

“The pandemic is not over, and there will be another pandemic,” Shapira insisted. “You will see it in your lifetime.” “Maybe tomorrow we will not have such a good relationship with a certain company” and Israel will not be given the tens of millions of vaccines it needs so fast. “Israel is a country with good scientists and a strong biotech industry. We should be capable of manufacturing vaccines whether Pfizer exists or doesn’t.”

Moreover, he said that in his estimation, Pfizer is not as good as it first appeared.
“I think the vaccine that Israeli citizens are vaccinated with is not an A vaccine,” Shapira said. “I don’t know which grade to give it, but a vaccine that only functions for a few months is far from being perfect.” He is not anti-vaccination, and he has gotten jabbed three times, but he said he does have some concerns about potential long-term side effects of the vaccine.

“The main advantage of mRNA vaccines is that they can be designed very quickly. The disadvantage is that their technology is unknown, raising all kinds of safety issue questions – certainly for long-term side effects,”

He knows from “my close circle and conversations” he has had with doctors that there are “significant” side effects that could be associated with the vaccine. “I don’t think that they were covered up on purpose, but I think digging deeper into the possibility of side effects was less convenient” when running a mass vaccination campaign, he told the Post. “I don’t think anyone tried hard enough to look for side effects.... A year is a very short experiment.”

He also said that the booster campaign was decided on “too hastily” and that he does not believe Israel was transparent in admitting to citizens that giving them a third shot was “experimental.”

Shapira said anyone under 65 who is getting the third shot should be informed that it was not approved by the FDA, told what the benefits and harms might be, and asked to sign a consent form.

“I am a man who is aware of what secrets are and respects secrets,” Shapira explained. “But there was a lack of transparency. Why were parts of the Pfizer contract hidden? Why were coronavirus cabinet meeting minutes hidden? I think there was too much business and too little science. In a battle between science and business, science should win.”

“Being a guinea pig is not necessarily bad. You can be smart mice,” he continued. “Whether it was a mistake or not, we’ll only know in the future.”
And he pointed out the paradox that Israel is among the most vaccinated countries in the world with one of the highest infection and mortality rates.

“If the vaccination is so good, why are so many people sick?” Shapira asked.

“The pandemic has been managed like a circus, and I think we are going to pay a lot for it.”