A study released [December 13] by the Commonwealth Fund shows that in those two years, the Covid vaccines have averted over 3 million deaths in the U.S.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that more than 1 million Americans have died from Covid-19 since the onset of the pandemic. But the study results show the toll would have been even worse had the U.S. had relied upon so-called natural immunity acquired through infection as the only immunological defense against the virus. Without vaccines, the country would have experienced four times as many deaths, 1.5 times more infections, and 3.8 times more hospitalizations in the time since December of 2020. The vaccines also saved the U.S. $1 trillion in additional medical costs.
The study’s key message is that vaccines are “worth our money as taxpayers,” said Isaac Chun-Hai Fung, an associate professor of epidemiology at Georgia Southern University, who was not involved in the study. “We pay for the vaccination campaign and it works. It saves us money and it saves lives.”
Fung said the new study’s results show how to protect people’s health while minimizing interruptions to their lives. That’s an important message for politicians, and also applies to other infectious diseases like the flu, Fung said. “We should continue to support preventive medicine,” he said, “not just Covid-19 vaccinations, but other kinds of vaccines, because it’s keeping people healthy, they can go to work, [which keeps] the economy running.”
