Low uptake of vaccination | 320,000 deaths could have been avoided in the United States

The number of infections has been slowly but surely increasing since the beginning of May in the United States, particularly in certain Northeastern states. Maine and New York state have twice as many cases as earlier this month, as a study suggests 320,000 deaths could have been prevented with increased vaccination of the population.

Mathieu Perreault
The Press

For New York, this is a fifth wave, while Quebec experienced a sixth wave in April.

The United States as a whole saw the number of cases increase by 50% in May, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), although this figure is 10 times lower than during the wave. Omicron at the turn of the year. However, the number of tests is much lower, which means that some infections are not counted.

Interestingly, the number of cold infections, caused by four mild coronaviruses, has also jumped in the United States in the past two months, according to the CDC. The figure is twice as high for the north of the country. COVID-19 is caused by another coronavirus, SARS-CoV-2.

Preventable deaths

In this unfavorable epidemic context, a new study estimates that half of the approximately 700,000 deaths attributed to COVID-19 in the United States would have been avoided if everyone had been vaccinated.

Nearly 320,000 deaths would have been avoided if 100% of over-5s had been vaccinated, and 220,000 if the vaccination rate had been 90%, according to the study published on the pre-publication site MedRxiv.

“We wanted to know what were the consequences of the much lower than expected adoption rate of the COVID-19 vaccine,” says the study’s lead author, Stefanie Friedhoff of Brown University.

At the end of April, the proportion of American adults who were not vaccinated was three times greater than in Quebec. Among children, the proportion of non-vaccinated is twice that of Quebec. 18-29 year olds in Quebec have an 86% COVID-19 vaccination rate, 10 points higher than the average for all adults over 18 in the United States.

“We also checked what would have happened if the adoption of the vaccine had not only been universal, but as fast as the fastest state, Maine, and we would have avoided even a few more deaths, that is 340,000 “says the D^D Friedhof.

The researchers analyzed the COVID-19 vaccination and mortality rate by county. They did not, however, take into account the vaccination rate in groups at risk, for example the elderly, but the D^D Friedhoff doesn’t think that would have changed the situation. On the other hand, she considers that if we include deaths due to other untreated diseases due to the overload of work in hospitals, the balance sheet would be even bleaker.

Such an exercise has not been done in Quebec, according to epidemiologist Gaston De Serres, of the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec. “But since we have a very high vaccination rate, there wouldn’t have been as many preventable deaths,” says Dr.^r From Serres.