A child receives a dose of Sinovac COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine at a health center in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on February 23, 2022. / CFP
A child receives a dose of Sinovac COVID-19 coronavirus vaccine at a health center in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, on February 23, 2022. / CFP
Vaccines against COVID-19 prevented nearly 20 million deaths in the first year after its introduction, according to the first major modeling study on the subject published Friday.
The study, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases, is based on data from more than 180 countries collected from December 8, 2020 to December 8, 2021.
It is the first attempt to estimate the number of deaths avoided directly and indirectly as a result of COVID-19 vaccinations.
He found that 19.8 million deaths were avoided out of about 31.4 million potential deaths that would have occurred if no vaccines were available, a 63 percent reduction.
The study used official figures – or estimates when no official data were available – for COVID-19 deaths, as well as total excess deaths in each country.
Excess mortality is the difference between the total number of people who died from all causes and the number of deaths predicted according to previous data.
These analyzes were compared with a hypothetical alternative scenario in which no vaccine was administered.
The model took into account the variation in vaccination rates between countries, as well as differences in vaccine efficacy depending on the types of vaccines that are known to have been used primarily in each country.
The study found that high- and middle-income countries accounted for the largest number of deaths avoided, 12.2 million to 19.8 million, reflecting inequalities in access to vaccines worldwide.
Nearly 600,000 more deaths could have been avoided if the World Health Organization’s goal of vaccinating 40 percent of each country’s population by the end of 2021 had been achieved, he concluded.
(Contributed by AFP)
Source (s): AFP