The Technion’s story has been intertwined with Israel’s for more than a century, from laying the foundations for a new nation to shaping its future.
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Plenty of good news came out of coronavirus research.
Scientists got a jump on developing mRNA vaccines, treatment for viruses moved quickly past Tamiflu, and researchers realized the critical importance of making findings available to the public.
These were just some of the conclusions to come out of a Technion webinar moderated by Professor Roy Kishony, the Marilyn and Henry Taub Professor of Life Sciences in the Technion Faculty of Biology. Stressing the importance of an interdisciplinary approach in tackling COVID-19, Prof. Kishony called on M.D.-Ph.D. candidate Matan Levine, mathematician Associate Professor Nir Gavish, and biomedical data scientist Assistant Professor Dvir Aran to address the impact of Israel’s vaccine campaigns, opportunities of using real-time data to make predictions, and lessons learned.
Israel was the first to vaccinate — reaching a 50% rate of adults by spring 2021 as compared with 15%-20% elsewhere — and first to give the second and third boosters. Israel was also a leader in tracking vaccine data, hospitalizations, and deaths, and comparing them within different demographics. “This has been very special to Israel, and why you’ve seen so many important studies coming from here,” said Prof. Kishony. “All eyes are on us to see the impact of the vaccines on the disease.”
From the outset, Technion researchers were on the frontier of coronavirus detection — developing one of the earliest home test kits, and launching a project to expedite diagnosis by pooling test samples. Technion scientists then moved to COVID-19 protection, inventing personal protective equipment including the “Maya” covering for surgical masks to enhance safety for frontline workersv. The Technion was at the forefront of data research and analysis to understand both the effectiveness of vaccines and boosters on individuals and communities, and their waning protection over time.
Collaborating with Maccabi Healthcare Services, “we saw a reduction in the viral load just 12 days after the first vaccine shot, and a reduction in infections among vaccinated people,” said doctoral candidate Levine, who worked in Prof. Kishony’s lab. “It was wonderful. But this was not the end of the story.” Continuing to run the data, they saw vaccine protection disappear after six months. As to whether people would need to be vaccinated every six months, Prof. Kishony foresaw a scenario in which scientists would study emerging variants and tailor vaccines to protect against the new strains, as is done each year for the flu.
Prof. Gavish talked about his work in retrospective analysis, which he hoped would give scientists a leg up on managing future pandemics. “What would have happened if we had modified the booster campaign?” he asked. Hospitals would have been overwhelmed had the vaccine stayed restricted to people 60 years and older, he said, noting that Israel and other countries made the correct choice in opening the vaccines to younger adults. On the other end of the age spectrum, Israel might have seen a 20% decrease in COVID-19 cases among children five through 11 years old had the vaccine been open to them before the Delta surge, he said.
Prof. Aran, whose main research focus is cancer genomics, immunology, and precision medicine, delved into COVID-19 research and built a following on social media sharing his research widely on Twitter. He was among the first to use public data to show the vaccine’s effectiveness and its indirect protection for the community, meaning vaccinated individuals made the community safer for everyone. “If the people around me are vaccinated, it will be harder for the virus to spread even among unvaccinated people.”
Prof. Aran researched the causes of the vaccine’s waning effectiveness, and also focused on Omicron. Vaccines weren’t stopping the spread of Omicron, but importantly, “they are providing protection against severe cases,” he said. Prof. Aran was not optimistic about achieving herd immunity. “We shouldn’t think, ‘let everybody get infected and we’ll get over it and move on with our lives.’ That’s not going to happen.” But he saw a silver lining to the dark COVID-19 clouds.
“Since the start of the pandemic we’ve seen an arms race between humans and the virus,” he said. The people were pulling ahead, Prof. Aran concluded, ticking off some achievements that would position the world to fight off diseases in the future.
The pandemic brought people together around urgent issues that affected us all. Most people knew or cared for family and friends who became ill with COVID-19. People stood together in long lines to get tested, trying their best to keep themselves and the community safe. They applauded the selfless frontline workers who risked their health to treat others. And they shared resources and information. “Twitter has allowed scientists to communicate with the public and to interact with other prominent scientists,” said Prof. Aran. “It is so important when everything changes every day to share science in real-time. I hope these tools remain, and COVID ends in the near future.”