Fig. 1.

Weekly adjusted COVID-19 death (black curve), excess deaths (red curve), and daily fully vaccinated coverage (second dose) in 15 Europe countries. It was generally believed the excess deaths (the extra all-cause deaths in pandemic years compared above the average all-cause deaths in pre-pandemic five years) is a better proxy of true COVID-related deaths. Here we multiplied the reported COVID-19 deaths by a factor (>1) such that the total excess deaths equal the total of adjusted-reported COVID-19 deaths. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)