- A new data modeling platform finds that prioritizing people at highest risk for COVID-19 isn’t the most effective way to achieve herd immunity when there are limited vaccine supplies.
- While the vaccine will protect those at highest risk for the disease, it doesn’t stop disease transmission in the community.
- Experts point out that the model shows the complexity in responding to a pandemic without enough vaccine doses.
With both Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine candidates approved for emergency use and currently being distributed nationwide, it’s critical that available supplies be used in a way that maximizes herd immunity.
Currently, people at highest risk for COVID-19 are vaccinated first. This includes frontline healthcare workers and older adults.
However, researchers from the NYU Tandon School of Engineering recently developed a novel open-source platform that’s able to create predictive models of COVID-19.
Their data, published in the journal Advanced Theory and Simulations, shows this approach might not be the best way to beat COVID-19.
Source: healthline