Lives saved by COVID-19 vaccines

The Lancet has recently published an abstract by a multi-centre cohort on how effective COVID vaccine policies were, which in the UK were designed by the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation which Professor Brown, Breathing Matters Lung Infection Lead, is a member. This focussed on the WHO European region (December 2020 to March 2023).

By March 2023, over 2.2 million COVID-19-related deaths were reported in 54 European countries. This study estimated how many lives were saved by the COVID-19 vaccines between December 2020 and March 2023.

The results suggested that the COVID vaccines reduced deaths by 59% in 34 of the 54 countries looked at, saving 1.6 million lives. 96% of those saved were aged 60 years or older, with 52% aged 80 or above. Surprisingly, the results suggested that more lives were saved by the first booster doses rather than the initial vaccination, and this may be because the Omicron variant of the virus (which was circulating at the time the booster vaccines were given) was highly infective. The findings highlight that the majority of lives saved were among older adults, underscoring the importance of keeping at-risk populations up to date with vaccinations. Future studies should also explore the broader effects of vaccination and public health measures.

You can read the full abstract here 

[Posted Nov24]