Vaccine rollout
Never before has a vaccine been rolled out so rapidly to such a large portion of the world’s population, across the full range of income groups. This has been largely possible because COVID-19 vaccines have proved to be highly effective and available in high dose, making them a viable option for a wide range of people.
However, ensuring that the entire population has access to the vaccines will require a broad and inclusive approach to vaccination. This will include expanding mass vaccination sites to reach more people, bringing services to more neighborhoods and community events such as “ring vaccination” where a vaccine bus or van goes into a neighborhood offering a complete set of interventions including testing, accelerated contact tracing, outreach, education, and walk-up vaccination for all eligible age groups.
Moreover, communication of scientific findings and recommendations was challenging due to limited availability of printed material. Modernizing data collection, facilitating and monitoring provider reporting, developing equitable plans for vaccine allocation, and communicating in plain language will be important.
One important finding was that a single call strategy, where a group is called until rollout coverage is reached before moving to the next, may not produce the best results. Instead a dynamic algorithm based on R-based projected avoidable deaths (RbPAD) that adapts to changes in the probability of death of different groups appears to perform close to the best single-call strategies. The dynamic algorithm is model independent and computationally inexpensive, making it a practical alternative to static group-based distribution.