"1. Introduction
... To our knowledge, our paper is the first to use DDML [doubly debiased machine learning] to estimate the causal impact of vaccination itself on healthcare outcomes in elderly care homes...
Using standard panel data regression analysis and doubly debiased machine learning (DDML) techniques suggests both that vaccination had only a limited impact on care home mortality and that any impact was restricted to the initial rollout period of the vaccine. Our analysis casts doubt on the hypothesis that high rates of vaccination were a particularly important factor in reducing Covid mortality after the initial waves. In turn, this has implications for public policy relating to Covid vaccination. In particular, it may be appropriate to look again at the case for continuing to expend resources on offering regular booster vaccination doses to vulnerable populations such as care home residents."
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).