Head of public health services at the Health Ministry Sharon Alroy-Preis said on Sunday that the U.S. was about three months behind Israel in terms of the surge of COVID-19 cases caused by the Delta variant of the coronavirus.
"The CDC representative told the FDA that she had not observed a drop in the efficacy of the vaccines, just as we had not observed such a drop three months ago. Now the diminished efficacy is evident," she said in an interview with Ynet.
The senior health official said that that was the reasoning behind the decision by the FDA on Friday, to offer a booster shot only to the over 65 population and not to all Americans over the age of 16, as was expected by some.