According to a current model, the corona vaccinations prevented almost 20 million Covid 19 deaths worldwide in their first year.
This means that the number of deaths expected without vaccinations has been more than halved, researchers from London's Imperial College write in an article published this week in the specialist journal "Lancet Infectious Diseases".
For the first year of immunizations, which began on December 8, 2020, the scientists analyzed the vaccinations administered in 185 countries and regions and correlated them with the deaths recorded in each.
Where these were not reliably counted, they used excess mortality data and estimates.
Therefore, they come up with higher possible death rates than the World Health Organization (WHO).
In addition, they not only looked at the deaths avoided through direct vaccinations, but also calculated that fewer people were infected in the vicinity of vaccinated people.
Vaccination rate significantly lower in the Global South
According to the mathematical models, without vaccinations, 31.4 million deaths in connection with the corona virus would have been expected.
19.8 million of them were avoided by vaccination - 12.2 million of them in high- and middle-income countries.
This shows the unfair distribution of vaccines, according to the study.
In many countries of the Global South, vaccination rates are still significantly lower than in Europe, for example.
Another almost 600,000 deaths could have been prevented if the World Health Organization's goal of vaccinating 40 percent of the world's population against Corona by the end of 2021 had been achieved.
However, this was clearly missed.
Our results show that millions of lives have been saved by making vaccines available regardless of individual wealth," said lead author of the study, Oliver Watson of Imperial College London.
"But more could have been done."
If the WHO goal had been achieved, around one in five corona deaths in poorer countries could have been prevented, according to the researcher.