Nearly 2,000 MA Lives Could Have Been Saved With COVID Vaccines: Study

MASSACHUSETTS — Thousands of lives in Massachusetts — and at least 318,000 across the U.S. — could have been saved after COVID-19 vaccines became widely available last year, according to a new data analysis by health researchers.

In Massachusetts, some 1,957 deaths of the 7,761 since January 2021 caused by COVID could have been prevented with vaccine protection, according to the analysis published at Brown School of Public Health’s Global Epidemics website. That's 353.4 vaccine-preventable deaths per million.

A dashboard showing a state-by-state breakdown of preventable COVID-19 deaths from January 2021 through last month was released earlier this month as a descendant of the omicron variant becomes the dominant strain of the virus.

Also contributing to the analysis were researchers from Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Microsoft AI for Health.

They say their analysis shows that since vaccines became widely available, every second COVID-19 death could have been prevented.

COVID-19 has killed more than 1 million people in the United States since the first deaths were reported in 2020. Daily reports of new COVID-19 infections have increased threefold since April, according to a database maintained by The New York Times, increasing in almost every U.S. state but especially in the Northeast and Midwest.

In those regions, The Times reported, case reports now are higher than they were in advance of last summer’s delta variant surge. However, with the availability of at-home tests whose results don’t show up in official counts, the number of people with COVID-19 infections may go undercounted.

On average, more than 300 people a day are dying, fewer than the average of 2,600 people who died daily at the height of the omicron surge, according to The Times.

Public health officials in Massachusetts have been pushing Gov. Charlie Baker to reinstate mask mandates due to the rise in COVID case numbers, but he refused.

Related: Baker Likens COVID Symptoms To Flu, Resists Calls For Mask Guidelines

In Massachusetts, about 83 percent of eligible residents are fully vaccinated, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracker. If you haven’t gotten a vaccine or boosters, they’re available all over the state. Check vaxfinder.mass.gov to find one near you.

Everyone 12 and older is eligible for a booster shot, and federal health officials recommend that people 50 and older get a second booster shot. A CDC advisory panel was scheduled to meet Thursday to decide whether to recommend boosters for children ages 5-11, an age group where vaccine hesitancy is high.