Optimal allocation of vaccines - the role of childrens vaccination

Gavish, N.; Katriel, G.

The ultimate goal of COVID-19 vaccination campaigns is to enable the re-turn of societies and economies to a state of normality. Presently, vaccines have not been approved for children. In this work, we use mathematical modeling and optimization to study the effect of the ineligibility of children for vaccination on the effectiveness of a vaccination campaign. Particularly, we address the question of whether vaccination of children of age 10 and older, once approved, should be given higher priority than the vaccination of other age groups. We consider optimal allocations according to competing measures and systematically study the trade-offs among them. We find that, under all scenarios considered, optimal allocations of vaccines do not include age-group 0-9. In contrast, in many of these cases, optimal allocations of vaccines do include the age group 10-19, though the degree to which inclusion of this age group improves outcomes varies by case.