Covid vaccinations have saved more than one million lives across Europe since the end of 2020, according to a new report. Researchers analysed data on deaths and vaccinations to deduce that the majority of the lives saved were over 60 and that the first booster vaccine proved most preventative in this age group.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates suggest that close to half the more than two million people who died across the continent with the respiratory disease were saved by vaccines. The new estimates from WHO/Europe are due to be presented at this year’s European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) in Copenhagen, Denmark, and serve to highlight the importance of vaccinations.
It is also hoped the statistics will encourage countries with low vaccine take ups to push to fully vaccinate older adults. Since the emergence and subsequent spread of SARS-CoV-2 during the early stages of 2020, more than two million Covid-19 laboratory-confirmed deaths have been officially recorded by WHO/Europe.
Countries within the WHO European region - which includes all EU countries as well as those in the European Economic Area - were later able to introduce vaccination programmes in attempts to protect their most vulnerable citizens from the disease. Several waves of variants of concern (VOC), such as the Omicron variant which emerged in late November 2021, caused further panic across the world.
The authors of the report, which will be presented at the ECCMID conference by Dr Margaux Meslé, used weekly reports of deaths and vaccination doses from across 26 countries and areas across Europe between December 2020 and March of this year to determine the number of lives saved by vaccination dose, VOC period, age group and country. The effectiveness of the vaccines was considered in the context of each dominant VOC period.
The new calculations estimate that at least 1,004,927 lives were saved across Europe as a direct result of vaccinations. The figures also suggest that the vast majority (96%) of lives saved were in those aged 60 and over.
In this age group, the first booster jab was also shown to have saved the most lives - accounting for more than two-thirds (64%) of the overall figure of deaths prevented. Vaccinations were also shown to have saved the most lives during the Omicron wave, when at least 568,064 deaths were prevented - equivalent to 57% of all lives saved through vaccination.
However, the researchers did concede that their research did not take into consideration the indirect effects of vaccines, nor the differing healthcare opportunities provided by different countries or pharmaceutical interventions. Additionally, the new data does not differentiate between the different brands of vaccines offered across Europe.
Subscribe here for the latest news where you live
Dr Richard Pebody, Head of the High Threat Pathogen Team at WHO/Europe, praised the effect of vaccinations across Europe but urged those who are still yet to be vaccinated to come forward. Dr Pebody said: "We can see from our research the large numbers of lives saved by Covid-19 vaccines across Europe during the pandemic.
"However, too many people in vulnerable groups across the WHO European Region remain unvaccinated or partially vaccinated." He added: "We urge people who are eligible and who have not yet taken the vaccine to do so."
