Over 300,000 U.S. COVID deaths could have been averted through vaccination: report

LOS ANGELES, May 17 (Xinhua) -- COVID-19 vaccines could have prevented at least 318,000 virus-related deaths in the United States between January 2021 and April 2022, said a report of ABC News, citing a new analysis.

The analysis used real-world data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and The New York Times, and was done by researchers from Brown School of Public Health, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and Microsoft AI for Health.

Their findings suggest that at least "every second person" who died from COVID since vaccines became available might have been saved by getting the shot.

Although the national average indicated that approximately 50 percent of deaths were preventable, researchers said there were large differences among states - ranging from 25 percent to 74 percent vaccine-preventable deaths, according to the report.

The United States reached the grim milestone of 1 million COVID deaths on Tuesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.