How we know the vaccines are saving lives
How we know the vaccines are saving lives
We looked at the UK’s COVID deaths before and after the country’s vaccine rollout programme
The COVID-19 vaccines are saving lives. How do we know? We looked at the UK, one of the countries privileged enough to have successfully vaccinated most of its adult population.
We compared the number of COVID cases and deaths before the UK’s vaccine rollout in January 2021 and after the rollout in July 2021.
In January, before people were vaccinated, when new cases soared to tens of thousands per day, more than a thousand people died every day.
In July, after most people aged 40 or over had been vaccinated, when new cases soared to similar levels, the number of people dying was reduced to less than 100 per day.
What this data shows is that where COVID is spreading, many more people will live once the community is vaccinated. With some people questioning whether the vaccines work, the world needs to hear this: the vaccines save lives!
With this real world example from the UK rollout, we should all feel more confident about our ability to end the pandemic and stop millions of preventable deaths. But this can only happen if we work together.
In countries where vaccines are available, use your platforms to help encourage others to get vaccinated and counter misinformation about the vaccines.