Canada has been spared billions of dollars lost to COVID-19 vaccination campaigns, according to the CD Howe Institute.
A new report authored by Institute policy analysts Rosalie Wyonch and Tingting Zhang offers predictions of what might have happened if the federal government hadn’t pursued and pushed ahead with vaccines.
The report said vaccines were “very effective in reducing COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths.”
“Estimates are for 21 percent fewer cases, 37 percent fewer hospital admissions and 34,900 fewer deaths (from January 2021 to May 2022),” say Wyonch and Zhang.
“The direct costs of vaccine administration compared to the savings associated with avoiding absenteeism and treatment costs due to illness indicate an estimated net cost-benefit ratio of -$0.4 billion to $2.1 billion.
“Using the Statistical Value of Life, the estimated lives saved are estimated at an additional $27.6 billion.
“Additionally, vaccination has enabled a reduction in many preventive public health measures that disrupted Canadians’ social and economic lives.”
The two say a six-month delay in vaccine access and continued public health restrictions “would have resulted in economic losses equivalent to about 12.5 percent of GDP, or about $156 billion in economic activity in 2021.”
The full report can be found here.