Could game theory be applied to COVID-19 vaccine rollouts?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-06-09 09:01

Australia; International

Pfizer-BioNTech_COVID-19_vaccine_(2020)_E By U.S. Secretary of Defense - CC BY 2.0

Game theory is the study of strategic decision-making, and international scientists, including Australians, say it could be used to help plan optimal COVID-19 vaccine rollouts. The experts say vaccine uptake depends on people making decisions about whether to get the jab under uncertain conditions and with imperfect information, a situation they say is a good fit for game theory. Game theory should be used to model vaccine prioritisation and uptake, so the information can be used to inform policy decisions about vaccine rollouts around the world, they say.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

Optimal governance and implementation of vaccination programs to contain the COVID-19 pandemic

Vaccination uptake has become the key factor that will determine our success in containing the COVID-19 pandemic. In the months following the introduction of vaccines, their availability and the human resources needed to run the vaccination programs have been scarce in many countries. Vaccine hesitancy is also being encountered from some sections of the general public. We emphasize that decision making under uncertainty and imperfect information, and with only conditionally optimal outcomes, is a unique forte of established game theoretic modelling. Therefore, we can use this approach to determine vaccination prioritisation and uptake, and to inform important policy decisions for the optimal control of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Journal/
conference: Royal Society Open Science

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: The University of Sydney, University of Maribor, Slovenia

Funder: Slovenian Research Agency.

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