Vaccines Saved 37 Million Lives Mostly Children Over Past Two Decades
THURSDAY, Feb. 4, 2021 — They’re medical miracles: A new report finds that vaccines against 10 major diseases prevented 37 million deaths between 2000 and 2019 in low- and middle-income countries worldwide, with young children benefiting most.
Vaccinations are also projected to prevent a total of 69 million deaths between 2000 and 2030, researchers say.
Their modeling study also shows that vaccination against the 10 diseases — including measles, rotavirus, HPV and hepatitis B — means that people born in 2019 will have a 72% lower risk of death from those diseases over their lifetime.
“There has been a much-needed investment in childhood vaccination programs in low-income and middle-income countries and this has led to an increase in the number of children vaccinated,” explained study co-author Caroline Trotter, an infectious diseases researcher at the University of Cambridge in the U.K.
The greatest benefit of vaccination is among children under age 5. In this age group, deaths from the 10 diseases would be 45% higher without vaccination, according to findings published Jan. 29 inThe Lancet medical journal.
Vaccinations against measles will have the biggest impact, preventing 56 million deaths between 2000 and 2030. Over the lifetime of people born between those years, vaccination will prevent 120 million deaths 65 million of them in kids under age 5.
The study assessed vaccination programs in 98 countries.
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Ysph Study Finds Covid
Researchers used modeling techniques to estimate the number of lives saved and hospitalizations prevented due to the U.S. vaccine rollout compared to the result if no vaccines had been administered.
11:20 pm, Sep 02, 2021
Staff Reporter
Regina Sung, Staff Photographer
The pace of our vaccination efforts has saved over 100,000 lives, President Joe Biden announced at a press conference on Aug. 23, after the FDA granted full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. He was citing the results of a study conducted by the Yale School of Public Health.
The study, authored by professor of epidemiology Alison Galvani and associate research scientist Pratha Sah, described that without the United States COVID-19 vaccination program, there would have been 279,000 more deaths and nearly 1.25 million further hospitalizations compared to reported levels. The article was published by The Commonwealth Fund, a private foundation dedicated to improving access, quality and efficiency in the United States health care system and is currently under peer review on MedRxiv.
This success is particularly noteworthy given the emergence of more transmissible variants, including the delta variant, Galvani wrote in an email to the News. Our study underscores that the swift vaccine rollout in the US has played a pivotal role in reducing the COVID-19 burden and in curbing surges from more transmissible emerging variants.
The bottom line is that vaccination saves lives, Galvani explained.
Covid Vaccines Saved 112000 Lives In Uk Deputy Medical Officer Says
People shield from the rain outside of a COVID-19 vaccination centre amid the spread of the coronavirus disease pandemic, London, Britain, June 18, 2021. REUTERS/Toby Melville
LONDON, Sept 14 – Vaccines have saved 112,000 lives and averted 24 million cases of COVID in the United Kingdom, England’s Deputy Chief Medical Officer Jonathan Van-Tam said on Tuesday.
“Our latest estimates are that since we began deploying these vaccines, they’ve probably averted in the region of 24 million cases of COVID in the UK and 112,000 deaths – so incredibly successful to date and remains so,” Van-Tam said.
“We’re not past the pandemic – we’re in an active phase still. We know this winter could quite possibly be bumpy at times.”
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Worldwide Disease Incidence Of Vaccine
Even though some diseases may not be making people sick in your neighborhood, they may be common in other parts of the world. Given that people commonly travel for business, to visit family and friends, with relief groups, and for vacation, the viruses or bacteria that cause diseases can easily hitch a ride. Here is a look at the worldwide prevalence of many vaccine-preventable diseases:
You Have To Think Well What About The Ethical Consequences Of Not Using The Cell Line
There has been some controversy surrounding the origins of the cell line, however.
Apart from the fact that some people feel uncomfortable about its links to abortion, the woman whose foetus the cells came from, who Wadman has named Mrs X, did not consent to its use. In fact, she didnt even know about it until years later, when she was contacted by someone from the Karolinska Institute who was hoping for a more detailed medical history.
The incident is unlikely to happen again today, because human tissue is regulated in the United States. Any material collected is subject to the Common Rule a set of ethical standards introduced in 1981, which researchers must comply with in order to receive federal funding. Chief among them is the requirement for informed consent.
However, the rule doesnt apply retrospectively, and there are many examples of tissue which was effectively stolen and continues to be used to this day.
Genetic insight
These ethical transgressions have become even more problematic with the advent of affordable genetic sequencing. Human cell lines contain human DNA and WI-38 will share 50% of its DNA with the foetus mother. In this light, the cell line is considered by some as potentially representing a privacy risk.
The cells from WI-38 were never restricted, which means they could be shared freely with scientists around the world
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An Estimated 23% To 62% Of Deaths Prevented
A study led by World Health Organization researchers estimated the number of people 60 and older saved by COVID-19 vaccination in the 33 countries of the WHO European Region from vaccine rollout in December 2020 to November 2021. By Nov 8, 80% of Europeans 60 and older were completely vaccinated, and 84% had received at least one dose.
The study authors noted that more than 1.5 million people in the WHO European Region90.2% of them aged 60 and olderhave died since the pandemic began in December 2019.
Just over half of the estimated 469,186 lives saved were in those 80 years and older . A vaccination effectiveness sensitivity analysis estimated that 23% to 62% of total deaths were prevented.
The researchers estimated that the most people were saved in countries in which COVID-19 vaccines were rolled out early and uptake among people 60 years and older was high, while countries with slow vaccine rollout or vaccine campaigns rolled out in tandem with nonpharmaceutical interventions saw limited vaccine effects.
In a news release from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control , Hans Henri Kluge, MD, MPH, WHO regional director for Europe, who was not involved in the study, called COVID-19 vaccines “a marvel of modern science.”
The authors called for the continuation of public health measures as free COVID-19 testing, contact tracing, and outreach to vaccine priority groups.
As Many As 22067 Fewer Deaths In Italy
Another study, this one by researchers at the Istituto Superiore di Sanita in Rome, analyzed data from Italy’s nationwide COVID-19 surveillance system and from the Ministry of Health vaccination portal, which were both updated on Nov 11, 2021.
They estimated that, from July to September, 445,193 infections, 79,152 hospitalizations, 9,830 ICU admissions, and 22,067 deaths were prevented by COVID-19 vaccination. The cases averted accounted for 17% of the national total, 32% of hospitalizations, 29% of ICU admissions, and 38% of deaths by Sep 26, 2021.
Without vaccination, 214, 595, 871, and 1,592 estimated hospitalizations would have occurred per 100,000 people in those under 60 years, those 60 to 69, those 70 to 79, and those 80 and older, respectively, compared with the observed rates of 163, 421, 618, and 886 per 100,000, respectively. Likewise, the difference between expected and observed ICU admissions was 5 per 100,000 in people younger than 60 years, 37 in those 60 to 69, 50 in those 70 to 79 years, and 50 in those 80 and older.
Vaccination prevented an estimated 71% of deaths among people 80 years and older, 18% among those 70 to 79, 8% among 60- to 69-year-olds, and 2% in those younger than 60.
An estimated 74% of overall infections, 70% of hospitalizations, 75% of ICU admissions, and 62% of deaths were prevented by vaccination, considering that the average full vaccination rate was higher than 60 in all age-groups by the end of September.
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Statistics From The Covid
The highest number of new vaccinations reported in one day in the UK was 844,285 on 20 March 2021 thats equivalent to vaccinating the entire population of Liverpool in one day.
The highest number of new vaccinations reported in a 7-day period in the UK was 4,215,859 between 15 and 21 March 2021 thats equivalent to vaccinating the entire population of Birmingham more than 4 times in a week.
More than 3,000 vaccine sites are now available in England double the number than February.
How Was Global Decline & Eradication Achieved
Discovery of variolation
Variolation , refers to the deliberate transmission of viral matter.
Before the year 1000, Indians and the Chinese had already observed that contraction of smallpox protected children against any future outbreaks of the disease. As a consequence they developed a procedure that involved the nasal inhalation of dried smallpox scabs by three-year-olds.21
Another commonly practiced technique encompassed the injection of the liquid found inside the pustules of a smallpox patient underneath the skin of a healthy person. This would usually result in a milder infection of smallpox after which the person was immune against the disease. Both practices became known as variolation techniques.
The disadvantage of variolation, however, was that during the course of the mild infection the person became a carrier of the disease and could infect other people. Additionally, it was difficult to control the severeness of the infection which sometimes developed into a full-blown smallpox case that could lead to the persons death.22
This meant that the practice usually reduced the severeness of an infection and the likelihood of deaths but that it would never lead to eliminating the virus. If anything, it helped to spread the virus in a population even further and thereby encouraged its survival.
Institutionalized variolation
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About The Measles & Rubella Initiative
Launched in 2001, the Measles & Rubella Initiative is a global partnership led by the American Red Cross, United Nations Foundation, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , UNICEF and WHO. The Measles & Rubella Initiative is committed to ensuring that no child dies from measles or is born with congenital rubella syndrome reducing measles deaths by 95% by 2015 and achieving measles and rubella elimination in at least five WHO regions by 2020.
The latest data is published in this weeks WHOs Weekly Epidemiological Report and in CDCs Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
Smallpox And The Origin Of Vaccination
Vaccination has a long history. An early form of vaccination was referred to as variolation or more broadly as inoculation. Practised for a long time in Asia, this was an ancient technique of deliberate smallpox infection in which dried smallpox scabs were blown up the nose to infect the person with a form of the disease which was often milder. By the 1700s variolation had spread to Africa, India and the Ottoman Empire, followed by the UK and America, where the method of infection more frequently used was a puncture to the skin.
Variolation did work, but there were large risks. Those variolated could contract the more severe form of smallpox and die, and they could also transmit the disease to others.
In 1796 English physician Edward Jenner demonstrated another method of inoculation in which he relied on cowpox. Cowpox is a similar disease to smallpox and it had previously been observed that an infection with cowpox can protect against smallpox. Jenner conducted an experiment using matter from a cowpox lesion to inoculate his gardeners eight-year-old son James Phipps. Two months later Jenner exposed the boy to smallpox lesion matter and when Phipps did not develop smallpox he concluded that he was protected against the disease. Jenner called the procedure vaccination after vacca the Latin word for cow because of the origin of this first vaccination from the cowpox virus.
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Costs Of Smallpox And Its Eradication
By the time the World Health Organization launched the Intensified Smallpox Eradication Program in 1967 many countries, most of them high income countries, had already eliminated smallpox. Therefore, the true cost of eradicating smallpox will never be known as individual country programs reach back to before records of public health expenditure existed. Nonetheless, the Intensified Smallpox Eradication Program has been estimated to have cost $300 million in total from 1967 to 197733 with one-third of the funding provided by international donors and the remaining two-thirds financed by endemic country governments.34
Beyond direct program costs, smallpox incurred much higher indirect costs in the form of foregone economic performance. It has been estimated that smallpox cost low-to-middle income countries more than $1 billion per year at the beginning of the Intensified Smallpox Eradication Program in 1967, with more than $20 million dedicated to the care of infected patients.35
Industrialized countries incurred much lower costs: $350 million in 1968 which included vaccination programs and absence from work costs.36
Overall, the Center for Global Development37 estimated that direct and indirect costs of smallpox cost the world approximately $1.35 billion in the late 1960s.
Number Of Smallpox Cases
Smallpox cases by country
The chart depicts the number of smallpox cases by country, for most countries dating 1920 until 1977. Here we see that by the time the World Health Organization launched its Intensified Smallpox Eradication Program in 1966, most countries in Western Europe and North America had almost eliminated smallpox whilst the countries across South America, Africa and Asia, especially India, still recorded very large numbers .
Global decline of smallpox
Global data on the number of smallpox cases is shown in the chart. Shown here is the number of reported smallpox cases worldwide from 1920 until the last case in 1977. Just the reported number of smallpox cases between 1920 and 1978 already amounted to 11.6 million cases and that number was certainly smaller than the actual number of cases, although we do not know by how much. Even though smallpox had a high visibility and should therefore be relatively easy to document, the lack of an international organization dedicated to global health means the number of reported cases is probably substantially lower than the true number of cases. Crosby estimates that in 1967 10-15 million people were still being infected with smallpox every year while the chart on the reported cases below indicates only 132,000 for that same year.17
The reasons and extent of discrepancies between reported and estimated cases are discussed in our section on Data Quality.
Smallpox decline by region
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Health Insurance Providers Encourage People To Get Vaccinated So Theyre Protected From Preventable Diseases
Americans are experiencing the worst measles outbreak in over 25 years, and the disease continues to spread. Clinicians, government officials, business leaders, and other stakeholders are stepping up their efforts to promote the use of vaccines. This includes health insurance providers, which remain strongly committed to raising awareness about the importance of immunizations among both children and adults and covering recommended vaccines to protect people of all ages.
How Many Died Of Smallpox
In his review paper The eradication of smallpox An overview of the past, present, and future Donald Henderson reports that during the 20th century alone an estimated 300 million people died of the disease.15
In his book Anderson suggests that in the last hundred years of its existence smallpox killed at least half a billion people.16 500 million deaths over a century means 5 million annual deaths on average.
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How Many Lives Have Covid
More than 200 million US residents have gotten at least one shot of a Covid-19 vaccine with the expectation that the vaccines slow virus transmission and save lives.
For instance, some people in the US have only been getting the first shot of a two-shot vaccine and are therefore less protected than a fully vaccinated person. Alternatively, vaccinated people are much less likely to transmit Covid-19 to others, including those who are not vaccinated. This could make vaccines more effective at a population level than in the clinical trials.
I am a health economist, and my team and I have been studying the effects of public policy interventions like vaccination have had on the pandemic. We wanted to know how many lives vaccines may have saved due to the states Covid-19 vaccination campaigns in the US.
Covid Vaccines Save Lives But Were Chasing A Moving Target
Illustration by Rose Wong
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Researcher, Writer, and Lead Podcast Producer, The Commonwealth Fund
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Even as winter approaches and COVID-19 surges again in Europe, American vaccination rates have plateaued. Learn more about policy solutions to increase uptake and ultimately end the pandemic on #TheDosePodcast.
Vaccines have saved thousands of lives and are an incredible tool in the seemingly endless battle against the coronavirus. But even with COVID surging anew in Europe as winter approaches, the rate at which Americans are getting vaccinated has plateaued.
On the latest episode of The Dose, Alison Galvani, founding director of the Yale Center for Infectious Disease Modeling and Analysis, and Eric Schneider, M.D., senior vice president for policy and research at the Commonwealth Fund, bring listeners up to speed on the state of the pandemic.
Galvani and Schneider have been using data to show how effective the vaccines are at preventing deaths and hospitalizations and how, in the absence of successful vaccination campaigns, we are still losing people to the virus. Increasing vaccine uptake through mandates and administering boosters will help curb this pandemic. But to stave off future threats, its vital that we also strengthen the public health system and make it easier for all Americans to access health care, they say.
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