A group of researchers reported on Thursday that during the first year of the pandemic, COVID-19 vaccines saved up to 20 million lives, but even more deaths may have been avoided if international targets for the doses had been met.

In India, 4.2 million COVID-19 deaths were estimated to have been avoided by vaccination, compared to 1.9 million in the US, 1 million in Brazil, 631,000 in France, and 507,000 in the UK.

According to a study published on Thursday in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases, an additional 600,000 fatalities may have been avoided if the World Health Organization′s goal of 40% vaccine coverage by the end of 2021 had been achieved.

Based on estimates of how many more fatalities than usual happened during the period, the major finding—that 19.8 million COVID-19 deaths were avoided—was made. The same model produced 14.4 million deaths that vaccinations prevented when just documented COVID-19 deaths were included.

Because of the ambiguity surrounding the pandemic′s impact on fatalities and China′s enormous population, the experts from London excluded China. Other restrictions apply to the study. A different methodology was employed in another study conducted by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation in Seattle, which did not result in publication, but indicated that immunizations prevented 16.3 million COVID-19 fatalities.

The WHO, the UK Medical Research Council, Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance, and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation were among the organizations that provided funding for vaccines. (ETHealthworld, June 24, 2022)