The economic benefits of the covid vaccines may be double what we thought

New Scientist · Shosha Adie · 2026-11-05 19:00 UTC

The global health and economic benefits of the covid-19 vaccines were thought to have reached up to $38 trillion in their first year, but a new analysis suggests $64.3 trillion is a more accurate figure

The covid-19 vaccines were costly to produce, but paid for themselves many times over

The covid-19 vaccines may have provided health and economic benefits worth up to $64.3 trillion in the first year alone – almost double an earlier estimate. Previously, researchers calculated that the $79.4 billion invested in developing covid-19 vaccines saw a return of between $4.8 trillion and $37.9 trillion globally in the first 12 months after their rollout. But now, a reanalysis of the data suggests it is actually between $6.43 trillion and $64.3 trillion.

This means that for every $1 spent on the vaccines' development, between $59.70 and $809 was gained in that year. “It is great to finally see this research published to demonstrate the enormous health and financial benefits gained from covid-19 vaccines, in comparison to the costs that went into their development and delivery,” says Hallie Benjamin at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

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