At the time, the rapid response and development of the vaccines led to some concerns about the safety in rolling them out on such a large scale.
A study has examined the health consequences for taking the vaccine now that we are several years on from the world-changing pandemic, which left us all stuck at home and figuring out what this new ‘Zoom’ video calling thing was.
The study found that people who took the vaccine overall had a lower chance of death from any cause than people who didn’t.
Despite concerns over long term health problems from the vaccine, the French study found that adults who had at least one dose of the vaccine had much better health outcomes over the following four year period than those who didn’t.
It examined some 28 million French people aged between 18 and 59.
Drawing on data from the French National Health Data System, it looked at 22.7 million people who received the vaccine between May and October 2021, and 5.9 million people who were not vaccinated as of November 1 2021, with both groups monitored over around 45 months.
The number of people involved makes this the largest study on the long-term impact of the Covid-19 to date.
For Covid-19, the vaccine reduced the chance of death by 74 percent, and the overall chance of death by 25 percent.
It’s unsurprising that the vaccine has a lower risk of death by Covid-19, but what about the risk overall?
Well, researchers have come up with an idea as to why that might be.
It’s because while Covid-19 does itself pose a danger, there is also the risk that it will lead to another secondary infection or condition.
If your chances of becoming seriously ill with Covid-19 are reduced, then this also reduces the chances of you developing one of these serious secondary conditions.
This would be a particular danger in people who are already vulnerable to the virus, such as the elderly or immunocompromised.
As of February 2023, over 976 million doses of Covid-19 vaccine were administered according to data released by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
While the large scale vaccinations that we saw during the pandemic have now been wound down, tens of millions of booster jabs are still being administered each season.