Due to vaccinations towards SARS-CoV-2 within the interval 2020–2024, 2.533 million deaths have been prevented on the international degree; one dying was prevented for each 5,400 doses of vaccine administered.
Some 82% of the lives saved by vaccines concerned folks vaccinated earlier than encountering the virus, 57% through the omicron interval, and 90% concerned folks aged 60 years and older. In all, vaccines have saved 14.8 million years of life (one 12 months of life saved for 900 doses of vaccine administered).
These are a few of the knowledge launched in an unprecedented research printed within the journal Jama Well being Discussion board and coordinated by Prof. Stefania Boccia, Professor of Basic and Utilized Hygiene at Università Cattolica, with contributions from Dr. Angelo Maria Pezzullo, researcher generally and utilized hygiene, and Dr. Antonio Cristiano, a medical resident in hygiene and preventive medication.
The 2 researchers spent a interval at Stanford College, collaborating straight with the group of Professor John P.A. Ioannidis, director of the Meta-Analysis Innovation Heart (METRICS), within the context of the mission “European community employees eXchange for integrAting precision well being within the well being Care sysTems- ExACT.”
Professor Boccia and Dr. Pezzullo clarify, “Earlier than ours, a number of research tried to estimate lives saved by vaccines with totally different fashions and in numerous durations or components of the world, however this one is essentially the most complete as a result of it’s based mostly on worldwide knowledge, it additionally covers the omicron interval, it additionally calculates the variety of years of life that was saved, and it’s based mostly on fewer assumptions concerning the pandemic development.”
The consultants studied worldwide inhabitants knowledge, making use of a collection of statistical strategies to determine who among the many individuals who grew to become sick with COVID did both earlier than or after getting vaccinated, earlier than or after the omicron interval, and what number of of them died (and at what age).
“We in contrast this knowledge with the estimated knowledge modeled within the absence of COVID vaccination and have been then in a position to calculate the numbers of people that have been saved by COVID vaccines and the years of life gained on account of them,” Dr. Pezzullo explains.
It additionally turned out that a lot of the saved years of life (76%) concerned folks over 60 years of age, however residents in long-term care amenities contributed solely 2% of the whole quantity. Kids and adolescents (0.01% of lives saved and 0.1% of life years saved) and younger adults aged 20–29 (0.07% of lives saved and 0.3% of life years saved) contributed little or no to the whole profit.
Professor Boccia concludes, “These estimates are considerably extra conservative than earlier calculations that targeted primarily on the primary 12 months of vaccination, however clearly display an necessary total profit from COVID-19 vaccination over the interval 2020–2024.
“Many of the advantages, by way of lives and life-years saved, have been secured for a portion of the worldwide inhabitants who’re usually extra fragile, the aged.”
Extra info: International Estimates of Lives and Life-Years Saved by COVID-19 Vaccination Throughout 2020-2024, JAMA Well being Discussion board (2025).