Fairness and efficiency considerations in COVID-19 vaccine allocation strategies: A case study comparing front-line workers and 65-74 year olds in the United States.

ABSTRACT: The COVID-19 epidemic in the United States has been characterized by two stark disparities. COVID-19 burden has been unequally distributed among racial and ethnic groups and at the same time the mortality rates have been sharply higher among older age groups. These disparities have led some to suggest that inequalities could be reduced by vaccinating front-line workers before vaccinating older individuals, as older individuals in the US are disproportionately Non-Hispanic White. We compare the performance of two distribution policies, one allocating vaccines to front-line workers and another to older individuals aged 65-74-year-old. We estimate both the number of lives saved and the number of years of life saved under each of the policies, overall and in every race/ethnicity groups, in the

SUBMITTER: Rumpler E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10021220 | biostudies-literature | 2023

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature