The Role of a Resilient Information Infrastructure in COVID-19 Vaccine Uptake in Ontario.

Duchen, Raquel; Iskander, Carina; Chung, Hannah; Paterson, J Michael; Kwong, Jeffrey C; Bronskill, Susan E; Rosella, Laura; Guttmann, Astrid

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the need for a robust and nimble public health data infrastructure. ICES - a government-sponsored, independent, non-profit research institute in Ontario, Canada - functions as a key component of a resilient information infrastructure and an enabler of data co-production, contributing to Ontario's response to the COVID-19 pandemic as part of a learning health system. Linked data on the cumulative incidence of infection and vaccination at the neighbourhood level revealed disparate uptake between areas with low versus high risk of COVID-19. These data were leveraged by the government, service providers, media and the public to inform a more efficient and equitable vaccination strategy.