Researchers from a Santa Monica think tank have calculated how many American lives the COVID-19 vaccines have saved.
The distribution of COVID-19 vaccines during the first few months they were available prevented nearly 140,000 virus-related deaths and 3 million infections, according to a RAND study released Wednesday.
“The COVID vaccines came out really quickly and there was a big rush to get vaccinated across the country. Some areas were much quicker to get vaccinated than others. And there are still some areas of the country that really lagged behind. So we look at how that variation leads to differences in COVID-19 deaths,” RAND Senior study author Christopher Whaley told KNX.
According to Whaley, the vaccines have prevented three million infections.
Whaley said the highest vaccination rates are in Vermont and New York, the lowest rates are in the South, which is suffering a brutal fourth wave.
“Our results suggest that further efforts to vaccinate populations globally and in a coordinated fashion will be critical to achieving greater control of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Sumedha Gupta in a news release. Gupta is the first author of the study and an economist at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis.
The study also estimated the economic value of the lives saved during the study period to be between $625 billion and $1.4 trillion.