Death rates from COVID-19 are significantly higher in U.S. counties where a large share of people have not been vaccinated, compared to those where more people have been vaccinated, according to a new study.
The findings add to the evidence that vaccinating individuals can prevent infections and disease on a much larger scale, wrote an Oxford University professor, Christopher Dye, in an editorial published alongside the study.
“The findings of this study also make it clear that many more lives could have been, and will be, saved by encouraging people to keep up with vaccination in the face of waning immunity and new coronavirus variants, by achieving a even higher population coverage,” Dye explained in statements collected by HealthDay News.
“The number of lives is a matter for others to explore. On the other hand, this new study is another confidence booster for COVID-19 vaccines,” he added.
In the study, researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) analyzed data on more than 30 million COVID-19 cases and more than 400,000 reported COVID deaths in 2,558 counties in 48 states between December 2020 and December 2021.
Counties were classified as having very low (0 to 9 percent), low (10 to 39 percent), medium (40 to 69 percent), or high ( 70 percent or more). Vaccination rates were defined as the percentage of adults who had received at least two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine.
After accounting for other factors, the researchers determined that higher vaccination rates were associated with lower levels of COVID-19 cases and deaths.
When the alpha variant was dominant in the United States early last year, COVID-19 death rates were 60 percent, 75 percent, or 81 percent lower in counties with low, medium, and low coverage. higher vaccination rates, respectively, than in counties with very low coverage, the study team reported.
On the other hand, infection rates were 57 percent, 70 percent and 80 percent lower in counties with low, medium and high vaccination, respectively, than in those with very low coverage, the researchers found.
Similar declines in deaths were also seen during the second half of 2021, when delta became the dominant variant in the United States, with smaller declines in cases, according to the report, published in the April issue. from BMJ magazine.
–
