Vaccines have saved 470,000 lives among people over 60 in Europe

Vaccines against COVID-19 have saved around 470,000 lives among those over 60 years of age in Europe, according to a study released by the regional office of the World Health Organization (WHO).

The study, which does not include the lives saved by vaccinating people under 60 years of age or by the indirect effect of vaccines in reducing the transmission of the virus, includes 33 countries, including Spain, United Kingdom, Portugal, France, Italy , Sweden, Austria and Poland.

The figure comes from counting the number of deaths among adults over 60 years in those countries that would have occurred without vaccines, using the weekly death count as a reference and calculating the difference between the estimates and the actual number, from December 2020 to November this year.

“COVID-19 has caused a devastating number of victims in our region, but now we can say categorically that without vaccines as a tool to contain this pandemic, many more people would have died,” the director of WHO-Europe said in a statement. Hans Kluge.

Kluge called the vaccines “marvel of modern science” that have achieved what they promised, save lives and offer high protection against severe disease, recalling that the death toll would have been double in some countries.

The study, carried out jointly with the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), highlights that vaccine coverage in people over 60 years of age in the included countries varies greatly, from 20% to 100%.

The research estimates that it was in countries where vaccination was started earlier and vaccination in that group was greater where more lives were saved and than in others the effect of immunization was limited because either the process was slower or it occurred in parallel with the use of non-pharmaceutical interventions.

“The consequences of low vaccination rates in some countries are being reflected in saturated health systems and high mortality figures. We urge countries to continue to insist on closing immunization gaps, especially for the most vulnerable people, ”said ECDC Director Andrea Ammon.

The WHO recalls that vaccines are part of a set of tools and that, by themselves, they will not end this health crisis, so other measures are necessary, among which it mentions indoor masks, physical distance, hygiene hands and ventilation.

“Until the pandemic is over, countries must maintain strong public health measures such as free tests, contact tracing to break the transmission chains and that people from priority groups get vaccinated urgently,” warns the WHO.