The U.S. came in dead last compared to 20 other countries when it came to preventing deaths from COVID-19 as well as all-cause deaths, and it appears that relatively low vaccination rates might have played a part in those poor showings, a new study finds.
Researchers compared U.S. data to 20 member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development with more than 5 million people and a gross domestic product higher than $25,000 in 2021
“The U.S. continued to experience significantly higher COVID-19 and excess all-cause mortality compared with peer countries during 2021 and early 2022, a difference accounting for 150,000 to 470,000 deaths,” authors of the research letter published in JAMA Network wrote. “This difference was muted in the 10 states with highest vaccination coverage; remaining gaps may be explained by greater vaccination uptake in peer countries, better vaccination targeting to older age groups, and differences in health and social infrastructure.”
In addition, data from the 10 most vaccinated states in the U.S. show that if the other 40 states had similar rates, it would have meant 122,304 fewer deaths from COVID-19 from June 27, 2021, to March 26, 2022, during the delta and omicron waves, according to the research letter. In addition, if the excess all-cause mortality rate was the same throughout the country as it had been in those 10 most vaccinated states, it would have meant 266,700 fewer deaths.
Researchers from the Brown School of Public Health and the University of Pennsylvania compared data between the 10 most vaccinated states (including Washington, D.C.) and the 10 least vaccinated states.
They found that the two-dose COVID-19 uptake in the 10 most vaccinated states during the study period averaged 73% coverage, from 71.8% in Washington, D.C., to 79% in Vermont. The other most vaccinated states were New Jersey, Maryland, New York, Massachusetts, Hawaii, Connecticut, Maine and Rhode Island.
The two-dose COVID-19 uptake in the 10 least vaccinated states averaged 52% coverage, from 48.9% in Alabama to 53.4% in Indiana. The other least vaccinated states during the study period were Wyoming, Mississippi, Louisiana, Idaho, Georgia, Arkansas, Tennessee and North Dakota.
The delta variance data were collected from June 27, 2022, to Dec. 25, 2021. The omicron data were collected from Dec. 26, 2021, to March 26, 2022.
The study states that “there were significantly fewer COVID-19 deaths in the top 10 states by vaccination uptake (73% coverage) at 75 deaths/100,000 compared with the bottom 10 (52% coverage) at 146 per 100,000 (P < .001).”
"The U.S. continued to experience significantly higher COVID-19 and excess all-cause mortality compared with peer countries during 2021 and early 2022, a difference accounting for 150,000 to 470,000 deaths,” the study states. “This difference was muted in the 10 states with highest vaccination coverage; remaining gaps may be explained by greater vaccination uptake in peer countries, better vaccination targeting to older age groups, and differences in health and social infrastructure.”