The results of a new international scientific study published in the medical journal "The Lancet Infectious Diseases" are particularly positive, stating that coronavirus vaccines saved around 19.8 million lives worldwide in the first year of the vaccination programme, i.e. from December 2020 to December 2021.
According to the researchers, most deaths are estimated to have been prevented because of vaccines given in high and middle-income countries (12.2 million). At the same time, it is estimated that around 600,000 deaths could have been avoided if the World Health Organization (WHO) target of vaccinating 40% of each country's population by the end of 2021 had been met, which was not ultimately achieved.
The researchers, led by Dr Oliver Watson of Imperial College London, analysed data for 185 countries. Based on the mathematical modelling study, vaccines reduced the number of deaths that would otherwise have occurred by 63% (31.4 million).
79% of the deaths prevented (15.5 million) were attributed to the direct protection of vaccines against severe disease, while the remaining 21% (4.3 million deaths) were due to the indirect protection of vaccines due mainly to reduced transmission of coronavirus.
"Millions of lives were saved because vaccines became available everywhere."
"Our findings provide the most comprehensive assessment to date of the remarkable global impact that vaccination has had on the Covid-19 pandemic," Watson said. He added, however, that "millions of lives were likely saved because vaccines were made available everywhere, regardless of a country's wealth. But more could have been done. If the targets set by WHO had been met, we estimate that about one in five lives lost to Covid-19 in low-income countries could have been saved."
Since the introduction of coronavirus vaccination (8 December 2020), almost two-thirds of the world's population (66%) have received at least one dose to date. However, the WHO's goal was to fully vaccinate 70% of the world's population by mid-2022. Despite the wide scale of vaccination programmes, over 3.5 million people have died due to coronavirus worldwide.
Source: Proto Thema
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