Status: 04/17/2023 02:04 am
Corona vaccines have saved more than a million lives in Europe and the countries of the former Soviet Union alone. This estimate was published by the World Health Organization.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the vaccines developed in the early phase of the Covid-19 pandemic saved the lives of many people. A report by the organization shows that, based on scientific assessments, more than a million people in Europe and countries of the former Soviet Union alone have been able to survive due to the corona vaccines since the end of 2020.
This figure was calculated on the basis of the number of deaths and the doses of vaccine administered in 26 countries. According to the report, more than two million people have died of Covid-19 in the WHO Europe region since the outbreak of the pandemic around three years ago.
The effectiveness of the vaccines was weighted differently for the respective waves of the pandemic, depending on the prevailing variant of the coronavirus. Indirect effects of the vaccinations were not taken into account.
Mainly saved people over 60 years old
According to the WHO, 96 percent of the people whose lives were saved by the vaccines were older than 60 years. A particularly large number of deaths could be prevented during the omicron wave. The number of lives saved by vaccination alone in this phase of the pandemic was estimated at almost 570,000.
The WHO’s Director of Division for Europe, Richard Pebody, called on unvaccinated people to be protected. “Through our research, we see the large number of lives that have been saved by the Covid-19 vaccines across Europe in the pandemic,” he said, according to a statement.
The Europe Region of the World Health Organization includes 53 countries. In addition to the member states of the European Union and the European Economic Area, this also includes Russia and several countries in the Caucasus and Central Asia.