Pfizer vaccine prevented hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations, study finds

The Pfizer vaccine against the coronavirus prevented 8.7 million symptomatic cases of COVID-19 and 690,000 hospitalizations, according to a new study. The vaccine also saved over $30 billion in healthcare costs and over $40 billion in lost productivity, according to the study published on Sunday in the Journal of Medical Economics, a peer-reviewed journal. The researchers used data including the number of vaccinated people, the effectiveness of the vaccine and the likelihood that the patients would develop symptoms and become hospitalized. They authors of the study used real-world and trial data to determine the number of symptomatic COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths that would have occurred without the Pfizer vaccine, and the cost on the healthcare system plus the economy.