Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2022 May:161:102689.
doi: 10.1016/j.tre.2022.102689. Epub 2022 Apr 11.

Multi-period vaccine allocation model in a pandemic: A case study of COVID-19 in Australia

Masih Fadaki  1 , Ahmad Abareshi  1 , Shaghayegh Maleki Far  1 , Paul Tae-Woo Lee  2
Affiliations

Multi-period vaccine allocation model in a pandemic: A case study of COVID-19 in Australia

Masih Fadaki et al. Transp Res E Logist Transp Rev. 2022 May.

Abstract

While the swift development and production of a COVID-19 vaccine has been a remarkable success, it is equally crucial to ensure that the vaccine is allocated and distributed in a timely and efficient manner. Prior research on pandemic supply chain has not fully incorporated the underlying factors and constraints in designing a vaccine allocation model. This study proposes an innovative vaccine allocation model to contain the spread of infectious diseases incorporating key contributing factors to the risk of uninoculated people including susceptibility rate and exposure risk. Analyses of the data collected from the state of Victoria in Australia show that a vaccine allocation model can deliver a superior performance in minimizing the risk of unvaccinated people when a multi-period approach is employed and augmenting operational mechanisms including transshipment between medical centers, capacity sharing, and mobile units being integrated into the vaccine allocation model.

Keywords: Allocation models; COVID-19 pandemic; Capacity sharing; Mobile units; Multi-period decision making; Vaccine supply chain.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Vaccine allocation operational process.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Schematic overview of vaccine distribution network.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Schematic overview of solution approach for solving the multi-period vaccine allocation problem with MPW.
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Spatial distribution of the 325 medical centers in Victoria and their assigned demand.
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
Victoria’s population and number of COVID-19-related deaths by priority group in 2021.
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
Cumulative unmet demand.
Fig. 7
Fig. 7
Residual risk.
Fig. 8
Fig. 8
Transshipment of vaccines among medical centers.
Fig. 9
Fig. 9
Comparing the cumulative unmet demand and residual risk for multi-period windows of 6, 10, and 14 days.
Fig. 10
Fig. 10
Comparing the cumulative unmet demand and residual risk for administering network with and without mobile units.
Fig. 11
Fig. 11
Comparing the cumulative unmet demand and residual risk for administering network with and without mobile units.
None
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Aaby K., Herrmann J.W., Jordan C.S., Treadwell M., Wood K. Montgomery county’s public health service uses operations research to plan emergency mass dispensing and vaccination clinics. Interfaces. 2006;36(6):569–579.
    1. Abbasi B., Fadaki M., Kokshagina O., Saeed N., Chhetri P. 2020. Modeling vaccine allocations in the COVID-19 pandemic: A case study in Australia. Available at SSRN 3744520.
    1. Ali I., Alharbi O.M. COVID-19: Disease, management, treatment, and social impact. Sci. Total Environ. 2020;728 - PMC - PubMed
    1. Araz O.M., Galvani A., Meyers L.A. Geographic prioritization of distributing pandemic influenza vaccines. Health Care Manag. Sci. 2012;15(3):175–187. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Arifoğlu K., Tang C.S. A two-sided incentive program for coordinating the influenza vaccine supply chain. Manuf. Serv. Oper. Manag. 2021

LinkOut - more resources