A landmark global analysis finds that Covid-19 vaccines saved an estimated 2.5 million people worldwide, even with a more conservative approach than previous estimates.
Published in the journal JAMA Health Forum – and reported in SciTechDaily – the study estimates that Covid-19 vaccinations prevented 2.533 million deaths worldwide in the period between 2020 and 2024. That translates to an average of one life saved for every 5,400 vaccine doses administered, with the overwhelming majority of lives saved (82 percent) among individuals who were vaccinated before any infection.
The team, led by researchers from Italy’s Università Cattolica and Stanford University in the US, found that more than half (57 percent) of those prevented deaths occurred during the Omicron phase, and nearly all (90 percent) involved people aged 60 or older. In terms of years of life saved, the vaccines proved even more effective, preserving around 14.8 million years of life – or one year of life per 900 doses administered.
Researchers told SciTechDaily that, compared to previous studies estimating lives saved by the vaccine, theirs is “one of the most comprehensive.”
They drew on worldwide population data, applying a series of statistical methods to determine who among those that became ill with Covid did so before or after being vaccinated, before or after Omicron, and how many died, as well as at what age. They then compared this data with estimates modelled on a world without Covid vaccination.
Elderly people benefitted the most from the vaccine as a group, accounting for 76 percent of saved years of life, while children, adolescents and young adults aged 20–29 saw the least direct benefit from the vaccine.
Despite being “substantially more conservative than previous calculations,” lead author Professor Stefania Boccia, Professor of General and Applied Hygiene at Università Cattolica, told SciTechDaily that their estimates “clearly demonstrate an important overall benefit from Covid-19 vaccination.”
The impact of vaccination is likely even larger given its effect on post Covid-19 condition (PCC), more commonly known as long covid. An estimated 6 percent of people with Covid-19 develop PCC, according to the World Health Organization (WTO), creating a population of some 400 million people globally who suffer from a list of symptoms that range from mild to severely debilitating. Vaccination, multiple studies have found, reduces both the incidence and severity of long covid.
