Hello and welcome to More or Less.

We all weekly guide to the joys and perils of the world around us, all expressed through

the numbers.

This week I'm afraid it's mostly perils, even the hot dogs are perilous.

Coming up, we revisit the topic of government debt, since loyal listeners think I didn't

ask the right questions last week.

We also answer as many of your statistical questions about Afghanistan as we can.

These killer hot dogs will not long elude our gaze.

But first, should we be worried that the protection against COVID-19 provided by the vaccines,

is going down.

This concerning idea has been in the news recently, partly because of reports out of Israel.

Last winter, Israel was one of the first countries to embark on a large-scale vaccination

programme of its citizens, almost exclusively, with a Pfizer-Biontech vaccine.

But several months on, it's now seen a sharp rise in the numbers of cases and hospitalisations,

which does raise a worrying thought.

Is the vaccine's effect fading?

Here with me to delve into the phenomenon is Charlotte McDonnell.

Hello Charlotte.

Hi Tim.

So what do we know?

Well, at the end of June, Israel saw its case number start to rise again after a period

of extremely low infection rates.

...