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U.S. COVID-19 vaccination efforts prevented an additional 2.05 million deaths and 17 million hospitalizations through March 2022, according to research published by the Commonwealth Fund on Friday.
As of today, COVID-19 caused a total of 984,838 deaths, The New York Times reported. That means that, according to the Commonwealth Fund research, without the U.S. vaccine efforts, more than three times as many people would have died from COVID-19 in the country.
“There would have been an estimated 66 million additional infections and nearly $900 billion in associated health care costs in the absence of vaccination,” the research said.
There have been a total of 80,354,720 cases of COVID-19 as of today, The New York Times said.
The research was based on modeling techniques that are described in detail in this report in the Lancet.
Daily case load estimates
Using this modeling, the Fund estimates that, without vaccines, the actual pre-Omicron peak of 4,300 daily cases would have exceeded 24,000 daily infections.
“During the Delta wave, hospitalizations would have peaked at more than 48 per 100,000 population; during the Omicron wave, they would have peaked at 85 per 100,000 population, exceeding the hospitalization rate attributable to influenza during an entire severe flu season,” the Commonwealth Fund’s report read.
The organization says that its findings highlight the massive impact immunization has had on infections, hospitalizations, and deaths, adding that the vaccination efforts have positively affected cost savings—“approximately the size of one-fifth of annual national health expenditures—by dramatically reducing the amount spent on COVID-19 hospitalizations.”
