US expected death rate from COVID fell by 58% thanks to vaccines.
"The goal of the vaccination program, with first-generation, was to shift the spectrum of illness to the milder side, to decouple cases from deaths," Adalja said. "That's clearly what the data has shown as exemplified by this modeling study."
Steele added that the study doesn't tell the whole story, because it's based on data collected through September 2021. Therefore, the study “does not reflect more recent updates related to COVID-19 vaccination, including the authorization of booster doses for most age groups, and the expansion of COVID-19 vaccines to children ages 6 months and older," Steele said.
"As more people continue to get vaccinated and receive boosters, additional COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths are prevented," Steele added. Improved COVID vaccines being developed by Pfizer and Moderna are expected to improve that protection even more, Schaffner said.2.0, as I like to say," Schaffner said. “It's going to be a bivalent vaccine. It will have the antigen we use now, but will have as an addition an antigen related to Omicron and its latest variants."