More lives were saved by vaccines than by any other response to Covid-19. Vaccines save more lives if they are available earlier. I use two methods to estimate how many lives might have been saved given an earlier vaccine rollout. I then consider safety and efficacy information tradeoffs and non-regulatory constraints to vaccine rollout. I find that a 4 month acceleration to a vaccine rollout in August of 2020 was achievable and would have saved between 130 and 350 thousand lives over the next two years of the pandemic. I conclude with recommendations for future pandemics given the large benefits of vaccine acceleration.
How Many People Are In The Invisible Graveyard?
How Many People Are In The Invisible…
How Many People Are In The Invisible Graveyard?
More lives were saved by vaccines than by any other response to Covid-19. Vaccines save more lives if they are available earlier. I use two methods to estimate how many lives might have been saved given an earlier vaccine rollout. I then consider safety and efficacy information tradeoffs and non-regulatory constraints to vaccine rollout. I find that a 4 month acceleration to a vaccine rollout in August of 2020 was achievable and would have saved between 130 and 350 thousand lives over the next two years of the pandemic. I conclude with recommendations for future pandemics given the large benefits of vaccine acceleration.