The World Health Organization Solomon Islands Country Office notes today’s front-page headline in The Island Sun, “ZERO COVID VAX DEATHS”, in which Minister of Health and Medical Services Dr. Paul Popora Bosawai informed Parliament that no deaths have been recorded in Solomon Islands related to COVID-19 vaccination. This local finding is consistent with global safety monitoring, which shows that serious vaccine-related adverse events are extremely rare, in sharp contrast to the millions of lives lost to COVID-19 itself.
Since the pandemic began, more than 7 million deaths from COVID-19 have been officially reported worldwide. However, the true global death toll is likely around 14 to 18 million after accounting for underreporting of deaths. COVID-19 vaccination fundamentally changed this trajectory. Global modelling published in Lancet Infectious Diseases suggests vaccinations prevented an estimated 14 to 20 million additional deaths in 2021 alone — the deadliest year of the pandemic — meaning the global death toll would have been two to three times higher without vaccines.
Vaccines continued to save lives after the peak crisis. An analysis in JAMA Health Forum estimated that during the Omicron period, from late 2021 through 2024, approximately 1.4 million additional deaths were averted. This reflects the fact that by this period, many people had some protection through prior infection or vaccination, and newer variants were generally associated with lower mortality. Together, these studies show that most lives saved were during 2021, but vaccination continued to prevent deaths in the years that followed.
Despite tremendous press to the contrary, an analysis by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published in MMWR estimated that COVID-19 vaccines prevented 3.2 million deaths and 18.5 million hospitalizations in the United States by the end of 2022. This prevented burden significantly reduced pressure on hospitals and intensive care units during the height of the pandemic.
Further evidence of continuing protection comes from a large study published in 2025 in the New England Journal of Medicine, which followed nearly 300,000 U.S. veterans receiving care through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Between September 2024 and March 2025, people who received the updated 2024–2025 COVID-19 vaccine had a 64% lower risk of death, a 58% lower risk of hospitalization, and a 62% lower risk of ICU admission compared to unvaccinated individuals. The protection was strongest among older adults and those with chronic illnesses, showing that vaccination continues to save lives even as COVID-19 becomes endemic.
Of critical importance, the benefits of vaccination in preventing severe illness and death remain far greater than the risks, particularly for older adults and people with underlying health conditions. This fact is confirmed by WHO, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and the European Medicines Agency, which affirm that serious adverse events causally linked to vaccination are extremely rare.
“Solomon Islands has recorded zero COVID-19 vaccine-related deaths — and globally, vaccination has saved millions of lives,” said Dr Howard Sobel, WHO Representative in Solomon Islands. “These data tell a powerful story: vaccination fundamentally changed the course of the pandemic, prevented health systems from collapsing during the peak, and continues to protect vulnerable populations. I personally was vaccinated five times, and both times I got COVID-19, despite my being at high risk, I had a mild illness.”