Vaccines Prevented Quarter-Million COVID Cases, 39,000 Deaths Among Seniors

A new report found vaccinations prevented at least a quarter million of COVID-19 cases and tens of thousands of deaths among seniors between the first five months of 2021.

Researchers at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation found a reduction of about 265,000 new COVID-19 cases, 107,000 hospitalizations and 39,000 deaths were linked to vaccinations of Medicare beneficiaries from a span of January to May 2021, CNN reports.

Senior citizens have long been the most vulnerable age group during the COVID-19 pandemic, with individuals age 65 and older accounting for nearly 80% of deaths related to the coronavirus.

"The fact that you were able to stop that many deaths and that many cases and hospitalizations even that early on, just a few months into when people could get vaccinated, that really goes to show you that the vaccine works," Dr. Claudia Hoyen, an infectious disease specialist and director of pediatric infection control at UH Rainbow Babies and Children's Hospital in Cleveland, Ohio, who was not among the researchers involved in the study, told CNN.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also confirmed if found a 94% reduced risk of hospitalization among individuals 65 and older who are fully vaccinated, CNN reports.

Seniors are currently the most vaccinated age group among U.S. citizens with more than 94% having received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, accoridng to the CDC.