Deaths fall 15.8% in Brazil in 2022; understand how the Covid-19 vaccine contributed to the decline

Brazil recorded 1.50 million deaths in 2022, a number 15.8% lower (or 281.5 thousand fewer people) compared to the previous year. In 2021, the number of deaths broke the record for the historical series, which began in 1974, and reached 1.78 million. Data from Civil Registration Statistics were released by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) this Wednesday (27).

The research manager, Klívia Brayner, explains that vaccination against Covid-19 is one of the main reasons for the reduction in the number of deaths in the country. “This result follows the decline in deaths caused by Covid-19, with the increase in the number of people who completed the vaccination schedule”, explains the researcher.

Despite the drop, the number of deaths in 2022 was still 14.2% higher than that recorded in 2019 (1.31 million), the last pre-pandemic year. In January 2022, for example, there was an increase of 10.7% (161.18 thousand deaths) compared to the same period in 2021. However, in the other months of 2022, the number of deaths decreased.

“The beginning of 2022 was marked by the third wave of Covid-19 in Brazil, caused by the Ômicron variant, in addition to an epidemic of Influenza A, also responsible for the increase in deaths among the elderly in the period. Despite the reduction in deaths from Covid-19 in a context of increased coverage of the vaccinated population, the virus remained quite lethal in the first half of 2022″, says Brayner.

It is worth remembering that the World Health Organization only declared the end of the pandemic in May 2023.

Infant mortality increased in 2022

Even though the total number of deaths decreased in 2022, infant mortality increased. According to IBGE, the death rate among people aged 0 to 14 went from 37.2 thousand in 2021 to 40.1 thousand in 2022 – an increase equivalent to 7.8%.

The biggest increase occurred among children aged 1 to 4 years. In 2022, 6 thousand deaths were recorded – 27.7% more than in 2021 (4.7 thousand).

For Brayner, the increase in deaths in this age group is also linked to the Covid-19 vaccine. But in this case it is the lack of vaccine that contributed to the growth in registrations.

“According to information from this system, deaths caused by respiratory diseases such as flu, pneumonia, bronchiolitis, asthma and others corresponded to more than 60% of the difference in the total number of deaths in this age group between 2021 and 2022. Considering that vaccination of Brazilian children and adolescents was vaccinated later than adults, and that, therefore, they took longer to complete the vaccination schedule, it is possible that COVID-19 contributed strongly to this situation”, concludes the manager.