Covid-19 vaccines have saved nearly 280,000 lives in the US

Covid-19 vaccines have saved nearly 280,000 lives in the US

 

Covid-19 vaccines saved hundreds of thousands of lives and prevented more than a million hospitalizations in the United States, according to new estimates from researchers at Yale University and the Commonwealth Fund.   By the end of June, the researchers estimate there would have been about 279,000 additional deaths due to Covid-19 -- about 46% more than there were -- and as many as 1.25 million additional hospitalizations if there were no vaccinations. If vaccinations had progressed at half the pace that they did, about 121,000 more people might have died and more than 450,000 more  people would have been hospitalized.   Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has constantly underlined the important impact of vaccines for this reason.   “Preliminary data from several states over the last few months suggests that 99.5% of deaths from Covid-19 in the United States were in unvaccinated people. Those deaths were preventable with a simple, safe shot,” Walensky said during a White House Covid-19 briefing last week.   Even with the new threatening Delta variant in play, we have evidence from other countries that high vaccination rates can help keep more deadly surges at bay.   "In my mind, vaccines are the single most important factor" in the fight against the Delta variant, Becky Dutch, a virologist and chair of the University of Kentucky's department of molecular and cellular biochemistry, told CNN.