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Strategic spatiotemporal vaccine distribution increases the survival rate in an infectious disease like Covid-19

Grauer, Jens ; Löwen, Hartmut ; Liebchen, Benno (2022)
Strategic spatiotemporal vaccine distribution increases the survival rate in an infectious disease like Covid-19.
In: Scientific Reports, 2022, 10
doi: 10.26083/tuprints-00021091
Article, Secondary publication, Publisher's Version

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Item Type: Article
Type of entry: Secondary publication
Title: Strategic spatiotemporal vaccine distribution increases the survival rate in an infectious disease like Covid-19
Language: English
Date: 5 April 2022
Place of Publication: Darmstadt
Year of primary publication: 2022
Publisher: Springer Nature
Journal or Publication Title: Scientific Reports
Volume of the journal: 10
Collation: 10 Seiten
DOI: 10.26083/tuprints-00021091
Corresponding Links:
Origin: Secondary publication via sponsored Golden Open Access
Abstract:

Present hopes to conquer the Covid-19 epidemic are largely based on the expectation of a rapid availability of vaccines. However, once vaccine production starts, it will probably take time before there is enough vaccine for everyone, evoking the question how to distribute it best. While present vaccination guidelines largely focus on individual-based factors, i.e. on the question to whom vaccines should be provided first, e.g. to risk groups or to individuals with a strong social-mixing tendency, here we ask if a strategic spatiotemporal distribution of vaccines, e.g. to prioritize certain cities, can help to increase the overall survival rate of a population subject to an epidemic disease. To this end, we propose a strategy for the distribution of vaccines in time and space, which sequentially prioritizes regions with the most new cases of infection during a certain time frame and compare it with the standard practice of distributing vaccines demographically. Using a simple statistical model we find that, for a locally well-mixed population, the proposed strategy strongly reduces the number of deaths (by about a factor of two for basic reproduction numbers of R₀∼1.5−4 and by about 35% for R₀∼1). The proposed vaccine distribution strategy establishes the idea that prioritizing individuals not only regarding individual factors, such as their risk of spreading the disease, but also according to the region in which they live can help saving lives. The suggested vaccine distribution strategy can be tested in more detailed models in the future and might inspire discussions regarding the importance of spatiotemporal distribution rules for vaccination guidelines.

Status: Publisher's Version
URN: urn:nbn:de:tuda-tuprints-210911
Additional Information:

The source code of the model has been deposited in a recognized public source code repository (Zenodo, http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4122012)

Supplementary movie: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-78447-3

Classification DDC: 500 Science and mathematics > 530 Physics
Divisions: 05 Department of Physics > Institute for Condensed Matter Physics
05 Department of Physics > Institute for Condensed Matter Physics > Theory of Soft Matter
Date Deposited: 05 Apr 2022 13:14
Last Modified: 14 Nov 2023 19:04
URI: https://tuprints.ulb.tu-darmstadt.de/id/eprint/21091
PPN: 492711623
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