On Thursday, researchers reported that nearly 20 million lives were saved by the COVID-19 vaccines during their first year, according to study published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.
But even more deaths could have been avoided if international vaccination targets for the shots had been met.
Using data from 185 countries, researchers estimate that vaccines prevented 4.2 million COVID-19 deaths in India, 1.9 million in the US, 1 million in Brazil, 631,000 in France and 507,000 in the UK.
An additional 600,000 deaths could have been avoided if the World Health Organization's goal of 40% vaccine coverage by the end of 2021 had been achieved.
Another modeling team estimated that vaccinations prevented 16.3 million COVID-19 deaths using a different methodology.
