Should we give COVID-19 vaccines to the most sociable or the most at risk?

Embargoed until: Publicly released: 2021-06-16 09:01

International

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A COVID-19 vaccine strategy that over time switches from prioritising high-risk older age groups to the more sociable groups of people with the highest number of contacts, may be the most effective way to reduce COVID-19 deaths, according to international research. The study found that mixed vaccination, allocating half of the doses to the high-risk and the other half to the core-sociable ones, would lead to a considerably greater reduction in deaths than vaccinating the older age groups and focusing on the direct risk only. The authors say after the initial vaccination roll out to the at-risk elderly, switching vaccination priority between these groups every 6 months could be very beneficial.

Media release

From: The Royal Society

Switching vaccination among target groups to achieve improved long-lasting benefits
Shifting vaccination priority from the high-risk older ones to the core-sociable groups could have profound and long-lasting effect in reducing disease burden.

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Research The Royal Society, Web page Please link to the article in online versions of your report (the URL will go live after the embargo ends).

Journal/
conference: Royal Society Open Science

Research:Paper

Organisation/s: University of Oslo, Norway, The Pennsylvania State University, USA

Funder: This work is funded by the Research Council of Norway COVID-19 Seasonality Project 312740 (N.C.S.) and the Penn State University Seed-Funded COVID-19 Project (O.N.B.).

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