20 million lives saved by COVID-19 vaccines in first year: report

The coronavirus pandemic could have been much worse without vaccines, according to a new study that claims the number of deaths recorded worldwide from the coronavirus would be more than triple than it is today.

In the year after the vaccine was first introduced in December 2020, more than 4.3 billion people received an inoculation, saving 20 million lives, according to research published Thursday in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.

If the World Health Organization’s goal of 40% vaccination coverage by the end of 2021 in low-income countries had been met, an additional...