BOULDER, Colo. — A March 2024 study from the University of Colorado Boulder and the University of California, Los Angeles found that protective measures taken during the COVID-19 pandemic saved about 800,000 lives.
Stephen Kissler, an assistant professor of computer science at CU Boulder, was a co-author for the study.
"The main findings from our paper was that social distancing had a huge beneficial impact on reducing the total mortality during the COVID pandemic," said Kissler. "Our argument was that it was the combination of social distancing and vaccination together, that we really needed both of those components to have this... big reduction in mortality."
The research indicates that 68% of Americans got vaccinated before being infected. Nearly 2 million people would have died without vaccines or protective measures, according to the study.
However, the study also states that some "behavioral changes to slow the spread of COVID-19 came at a tremendous economic, social, and human cost."
"I think that I and everyone else is still sort of reeling from the fact that we didn't get to see friends and family for so long," said Kissler.
While social distancing and masks did impact the spread of the virus, the study indicates that mitigation approaches can be improved and better tailored for future pandemics.
The study suggests the country can be better prepared to handle future infectious diseases if it invests in vaccine development and "also in data infrastructure so that we can precisely target mitigation efforts to minimize the economic and social impacts of mitigation with the next pathogen."
While the pandemic highlighted a political divide, Kissler said his research found that people had more in common than not.
"Despite all of the differences that we have across states in the US, everyone across the board really did do quite a bit to prevent the spread of SARS‑CoV‑2, of COVID-19," said Kissler. "Because of that, we saw a lot less mortality than we would have expected otherwise across the board."
