Roughly 234,000 COVID deaths since last June could have been prevented with a primary series vaccination, according to a newly updated Kaiser Family Foundation analysis.
Why it matters: The deaths account for 60% of total adult COVID deaths since June and a quarter of the nearly 1 million fatalities since the pandemic began.
The big picture: The researchers say COVID-19 vaccines remain highly effective in preventing hospitalization and death — even in the face of new, highly contagious variants like Omicron.
- CDC estimates that in February and March, unvaccinated people were 10 times more likely to die from COVID-19 than people were vaccinated with at least the primary series.
- The analysis didn't attempt to estimate the potential effect of booster protection.
- Researchers used Kaiser tracking data for COVID deaths and a CDC dataset from 25 jurisdictions that shows the share of adult deaths that are among unvaccinated and vaccinated people.