Watchdog Reveals Majority of COVID Vaccine Side Effects Reports in Israel Went Unchecked
The State comptroller investigated the Israel Ministry of Health’s handling of adverse event reports.
A watchdog found that Israeli health officials did not investigate hundreds of thousands of reports of issues following COVID-19 vaccination.
Despite 354,200 reports of side effects submitted to the Israeli Ministry of Health, 82 percent of the reports were lost, as reported by State Comptroller Matanyahu Englman. Officials attributed this loss to technical malfunctions.
Mr. Englman’s probe revealed that an additional 33,000 anonymous reports were not investigated by the Ministry of Health, even though some provide contact information. The ministry cited a lack of manpower for not following up on these reports.
Due to missing data and lack of follow-up on anonymous reports, the Health Ministry’s communication on COVID-19 vaccine side effects, primarily the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine used in Israel, was based on only 55,000 reports.
Most reports were submitted to health maintenance organizations responsible for Israel’s universal health care system.
Clalit Health Services reported that 279,300 vaccine side effect reports were not received by the Ministry of Health.
Leumit Health Services did not report any adverse events following COVID-19 vaccination until May 2022 due to lack of communication with the Ministry of Health.
Maccabi Health Services sent around 3,000 reports in December 2021, but the Ministry of Health did not receive them. Despite requests for resending the reports, Maccabi did not comply.
Experts in a leaked video, commissioned by the Ministry of Health, mentioned difficulties in analyzing reports due to organizations keeping information confidential.
The comptroller noted that while reports of heart inflammation were investigated, other severe issues like menstrual irregularities were not looked into.
Improvements were recommended in the adverse event reporting system, staffing for follow-ups, and gathering missing reports for analysis.
The Ministry of Health commented that their adverse event reporting system helped identify heart inflammation as a COVID-19 vaccine side effect first in the world and that they are working on improving the system further.
Lia Onely contributed to this report.
