Covid vaccines prevented at least 330,000 deaths among U.S. Medicare seniors in 2021, health officials say

[onthedarkside]

 

 

Covid vaccines prevented at least 330,000 deaths and nearly 700,000 hospitalizations among adult Medicare recipients in 2021, the Health and Human Services Department said in a new report published Friday.

 

The reduction in hospitalizations due to vaccination saved more than $16 billion in medical costs, according to the HHS report. A 10% increase in vaccination coverage was associated with a 12% and 15% decline in the chances of hospitalization and death, respectively, among adult Medicare recipients, according to the study.

 

The HHS study looked at county-level data on vaccination rates and changes in hospitalization and death among a sample of Medicare beneficiaries ages 18 and older. Texas and Hawaii were not included in the study due to incomplete vaccination data.

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Despite the vaccine coverage within the highest risk group, more than 300 people are still dying each day on average [nationwide] from Covid, while more than 3,300 are hospitalized daily, according to CDC data."

 

(more)

 

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/10/07/covid-vaccines-prevented-at-least-330000-deaths-among-us-seniors-in-2021.html

 

 

Also from the report:

 

"Our model results indicate that COVID-19 vaccinations were associated with an estimated 670,000–680,000 fewer hospitalizations and 330,000–370,000 fewer deaths among all Medicare beneficiaries through the end of 2021. This represents a 39–47 percent reduction in these outcomes.

• Reductions in COVID-19 hospitalizations were associated with an estimated savings of $16.3–16.5 billion in direct hospitalization costs, a 6-fold increase in savings compared to our earlier study through May 2021.

• In the absence of any COVID-19 vaccinations in 2021, we estimate that there would have been more than 1.7 million COVID-19 hospitalizations and 700,000 deaths among the 64 million Medicare beneficiaries in 2021."

 

https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/documents/21a637373ccaf4c66f934bdbbb23ad5c/covid-19-medicare-2021-lives-saved.pdf

 

[onthedarkside]

Interesting additional chart included in this HHS report...

 

By my tally, the six least vaccinated states in the U.S., as of the end of 2021, for their entire adult populations, not just Medicare recipients:

 

 

Source: CDC COVID Data Tracker – Vaccine Distribution and Coverage, https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#vaccine-delivery-coverage