Using COVID-19 Data on Vaccine Shipments and Wastage to Inform Modeling and Decision-Making

Leila Hajibabai (), Ali Hajbabaie (), Julie Swann () and Dan Vergano ()
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Leila Hajibabai: North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695
Ali Hajbabaie: North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695
Julie Swann: North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695
Dan Vergano: Buzzfeed News, New York, New York 10003

Transportation Science, 2022, vol. 56, issue 5, 1135-1147

Abstract: Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, disruptions have been experienced in many supply chains, particularly in personal protective equipment, testing kits, and even essential household goods. Effective vaccines to protect against COVID-19 were approved for emergency use in the United States in late 2020, which led to one of the most extensive vaccination campaigns in history. We continuously collect data on vaccine allocation, shipment and distribution, administration, and inventory in the United States, covering the entire vaccination campaign. In this article, we describe some data sets that we collaborated to obtain. We are publishing the data and making them freely available to researchers, media organizations, and other stakeholders so that others may use the data to develop insights about the distribution and wastage of vaccines during the current pandemic or to provide an informed future pandemic response. This article gives an overview of vaccine distribution logistics in the United States, describes the data we obtain, outlines how they may be accessed and used by others, and describes some high-level analyses demonstrating some aspects of the data (for data collected during January 1, 2021–March 31, 2021). This article also provides directions for future research using the collected data. Our goal is two-fold: (i) We would like the data to be used in many creative ways to inform the current and future pandemic response. (ii) We also want to inspire other researchers to make their data publicly available in a timely manner.

Keywords: COVID-19; vaccine distribution; vaccine wastage; data analytics (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ortrsc:v:56:y:2022:i:5:p:1135-1147

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