An alternative vaccine prioritization approach in response to COVID-19 pandemic
Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management
ISSN: 2042-6747
Article publication date: 30 June 2022
Issue publication date: 21 November 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to evaluate the impact of food access and other vulnerability measures on the COVID-19 progression to inform the public health decision-makers while setting priority rules for vaccine schedules.
Design/methodology/approach
In this paper, the authors used the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) data combined with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)’s social vulnerability score variables and diabetes and obesity prevalence in a set of models to assess the associations with the COVID-19 prevalence and case-fatality rates in the United States (US) counties. Using the case prevalence estimates provided by these models, the authors developed a COVID-19 vulnerability score. The COVID-19 vulnerability score prioritization is then compared with the pro-rata approach commonly used for vaccine distribution.
Findings
The study found that the population proportion residing in a food desert is positively correlated with the COVID-19 prevalence. Similarly, the population proportion registered to SNAP is positively correlated with the COVID-19 prevalence. The findings demonstrate that commonly used pro-rata vaccine allocation can overlook vulnerable communities, which can eventually create disease hot-spots.
Practical implications
The proposed methodology provides a rapid and effective vaccine prioritization scoring. However, this scoring can also be considered for other humanitarian programs such as food aid and rapid test distribution in response to the current and future pandemics.
Originality/value
Humanitarian logistics domain predominantly relies on equity measures, where each jurisdiction receives resources proportional to their population. This study provides a tool to rapidly identify and prioritize vulnerable communities while determining vaccination schedules.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
This paper forms part of a special section “The COVID19 impact on humanitarian operations: lessons for future disrupting events”, guest edited by Bhavin Shah, Guilherme Frederico, Vikas Kumar, Jose Arturo Garza-Reyes and Anil Kumar.
The authors express their gratitude towards two anonymous referees, and the editorial team. Feyza G. Sahinyazan was funded by the Canadian Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) under grant 2022-03668.
Citation
Sahinyazan, F.G. and Araz, O.M. (2022), "An alternative vaccine prioritization approach in response to COVID-19 pandemic", Journal of Humanitarian Logistics and Supply Chain Management, Vol. 12 No. 4, pp. 532-553. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHLSCM-02-2022-0029
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited