According to new estimates, about 20 million lives were saved by the COVID vaccine in the first year.
Experts believe many deaths have been prevented in richer countries, with 12.2 million lives saved in middle- and high-income countries.
Research by Imperial College London, published in Lancet Journal of Infectious Diseasesshowed that overall 19.8 million deaths were averted.
British Maggie Keenan was the first person to get the vaccine outside of a clinical trial on December 8, 2020, and at least 66% of the world’s population is estimated to have been vaccinated at least once.
To date, more than 11 billion stabs have been administered, while Johns Hopkins University in the US COVID-The deaths involved 6.3 million.
Imperial research shows that another 600,000 deaths could be avoided if the World Health Organization (WHO) goal of immunizing 40% of the global population is reached by the end of 2021.
The headline figures in the study were built from estimates of vaccination rates, COVID deaths, and excess mortality records from 185 countries.
The study’s authors said: “The COVID-19 vaccination has dramatically changed the course of the pandemic, saving tens of millions of lives globally.
“However, inadequate access to vaccines in low-income countries has limited the impact in these places, reinforcing the need for equity and global vaccine coverage.”
Lead author Dr Oliver Watson said nearly 7.5 million deaths had been prevented in countries covered by the Covax programme, which aims to provide access to vaccines and testing to poorer countries. .
“Our findings suggest that millions of lives could have been saved by making vaccines available to people everywhere, no matter how wealthy they were,” said Dr Watson.
“However, more can be done.
“If the targets set by WHO were achieved, we estimate that about one-fifth of the estimated deaths from COVID-19 in low-income countries could be averted.”
Last month, the WHO said nearly a billion people in low-income countries were still unvaccinated and there was “not enough political commitment to deploy a vaccine” in some countries.
It says “misinformation and misinformation” is still preventing some people from moving forward.
Only 57 countries – almost all of them wealthy countries – have been able to immunize 70% of their populations, the WHO added.
