- [Julie] With COVID-19 cases on the rise,

Israeli healthcare leaders took the lead

in recommending a thirddose of the Pfizer vaccine.

- It's working, it's safe,

and it's the way to defeat this virus.

- [Julie] Although morethan 60% of Israelis

are fully vaccinated,

this latest surge couldlead to a fourth lockdown

over the upcoming Jewish holidays.

- As I said, what we'reseeing in Israel right now,

even though there is a surge in cases,

the level of severe COVIDhospitalizations and death

is much lower in peoplewho are vaccinated.

- [Julie] Dr. Yair Lewis, a former member

of Israel's national coronavirus response

believes there could be yet another surge.

Lewis says while the vaccine is important,

treatments are crucial.

- [Yair] Obviously,developing therapeutics

to treat people who have been infected

is something that we shouldbe able to actively protect

people that have been infected.

- So we have to have a drugas the second line of defense.

- [Julie] And that's the goal

of Hebrew University professor,Yaakov Nahmias and his team.

CBN News met him last year

after they identified that fenofibrate,

a drug on the market since 1975,

could possibly fight the disease.

Clinical trials now show it's working.

- And we looked at 15severe COVID-19 patients.

These are patients thathad to have oxygen.

What we saw is that inflammation,essentially pneumonia,

disappeared in just the first 48 hours.

- [Julie] COVID-19 creates an overreaction

of the immune systemknown as a cytokine storm.

Instead of fighting the lung infection,

it destroys the lung tissue itself.

- 93% compared to about 25%in the general population

could go home without oxygensupport in less than a week.

- [Julie] Nahmias saystwo clinical studies

on four continents

are also using the drug for treatment.

- One of the things

that makes us veryexcited about fenofibrate

is that it has anexceptional safety record.

The second thing is thatit's incredibly cheap.

- [Julie] At Tel Aviv's Ichilov Hospital,

Professor Nadir Arber continues work

on an Israeli drug called EXO-CD24.

Earlier this year,

he told CBN News abouthis first round of trials.

- [Nadir] And we give it byinhalation, it's very simple.

So in the enrolled 30patients in the phase one,

we checked for safety andthe drug was very safe,

no side effects whatsoever.

- [Julie] A clinical trialin several Greek hospitals

has shown similar results on 90 patients

with about 80 leaving thehospital within five days.

In the near future, he believes

it will be used as an at home therapy

and potentially a platform

for treating other similar ailments.

Julie Stahl, CBN News, Jerusalem.