Quarter of U.S. COVID deaths were probably preventable with vaccination

Peterson and KFF analyzed the monthly death toll, parsing out vaccination status and controlling both for age (older Americans are still at increased risk of death even when vaccinated) and for the imperfect efficacy of the vaccines. That allowed them to estimate the number of preventable deaths per month from last June through March.

Particularly during last year’s delta surge, most of the deaths each month could have been prevented with vaccination.

Since June (and excluding April, for which data is not yet complete), about 61 percent of covid-19 deaths were probably preventable had the decedent been vaccinated. Given that well over half of deaths during the pandemic occurred before that point, it’s remarkable that just shy of a quarter of the total pandemic death toll in the United States was probably preventable.