A dynamic and robust SOcioECOnomic VACcine allocation and distribution model with enhanced demographic considerations – SOECOVAC

Despite the rapid discovery of various vaccines against COVID-19, the management of the pandemic by national and international public authorities has posed numerous complex social, economic, and logistical challenges. In France, like in many other countries, finding the balance between economic and social stability and combating the spread of the virus proved to be primordial. This stability has been primarily undermined by logistical constraints such as vaccine shortages and insufficient infrastructure, which have impacted the effectiveness of vaccine allocation and distribution strategies. The SOECOVAC project's main intention is to contribute to public health and public confidence in the healthcare system by providing actionable decision-making tools for policymakers and public health authorities to better navigate future pandemics and ensure equitable and affordable access to vaccines. To achieve this, the project is founded on an interdisciplinary methodology structured around key vaccination-related decisions in the uncertain contexts of pre-pandemic and pandemic phases. This methodology combines optimisation methods and epidemiological simulation techniques such as dynamic and robust linear programming and compartmental models to strengthen the following axes and their synergies: socio-economic considerations in pandemic simulation; socio-economic and regional factors in vaccination decisions; vaccination strategy dynamics; and uncertainty management in pandemic simulation and vaccination decisions.
Benefiting from existing correlational theories, the SOECOVAC project aims to enhance understanding of how socio-economic factors in turn influence the dynamics of pandemics and vaccine acceptance, thereby improving the effectiveness of vaccination strategies. Following this approach, the main contributions of the SOECOVAC project include: enriching current pandemic simulation models with enhanced socio-economic factors; optimising vaccine allocation models by considering these new factors; a dynamic model for adapting vaccination decisions to the evolving pandemic; and robust management of uncertainties, particularly related to vaccine availability and efficacy, and specific disease characteristics at the emergance of a pandemic.
In this interdisciplinary project, communication and engagement with key stakeholders to ensure relevance and applicability of the results are prioritized. Hence, strong efforts for sharing and disseminating results, such as organising roundtable discussions with an external advisory committee composed of experts from the field of public health, will be mobilised throughout the project.