Australia’s rollout of COVID-19 vaccinations is estimated to have reduced the impact of the pandemic on the economy to the tune of $181 billion, new modelling shows.

The peer-reviewed research paper, The Value of Vaccines: A Tale of Two Parts, calculated the pandemic and resultant lockdowns would have delivered a $395b hit to gross domestic product.

But following the rollout of vaccines the estimated actual impact was $214b, resulting in a $181b positive economic difference from the period starting January 2020.

The modelling was undertaken by consultancy Biointelect and Victoria University’s Centre of Policy Studies with the support of vaccine maker Pfizer Australia.

It also estimated the uptake of vaccinations contributed to large positive effects for tourism exports ($28b), education exports ($26b), employment (142,000 jobs) and government finances ($259b).

“This demonstrates how important the process put in place for the COVID-19 vaccines was, which is a credit to the (then-coalition) government and the Therapeutic Goods Administration,” co-author Jennifer Herz, co-founder and managing director of Biointelect said on Monday.

“Our experience from the pandemic shows we should be thinking more broadly about the benefits of faster access to all available vaccines to our economy and society and consider the wider value new vaccines can provide.”

The modelling was recently published in the journal Vaccines.

Maureen Dettre
(Australian Associated Press)