PriorityVax: A Platform to Support Priority-setting Decisions for Equitable COVID-19 Vaccine Allocation

Contributed by Stacey Knobler, Senior Director, Sabin Vaccine Institute

Several effective vaccines — with more to come — promise to relieve the humanitarian and economic crises brought on by COVID-19. While demand for such vaccines outstrips supply, equitable access must be ensured. The PriorityVax decision-support platform provides a customizable, web-based tool in which users can employ the national and subnational data they have identified as best-suited to inform their priority-setting decisions and to place equity at the center of vaccine selection, allocation, and distribution.

The platform’s priority-setting analyses can easily be adapted to support a range of established frameworks for COVID-19 vaccine allocation and data generation. Analytical templates have been developed to support both the WHO and NASEM equitable allocation frameworks and the use of model-generated data from sources such as the Africa COVID Community Vulnerability Index. Importantly, these same analyses can account for additional considerations specific to national-, district- and community-level decision-makers and stakeholders. A brief demonstration of these analyses and how the tool works will be shared during the COVIDAction Vaccine Data Co-Lab event.

About PriorityVax

PriorityVax is designed to encourage dynamic and evidence-informed decision-making and to aid in the evaluative process of priority-setting representing the different interests, values, and roles of vaccine and immunization stakeholders. As a multi-criteria decision analysis tool, PriorityVax allows the incorporation of both quantitative data and evidence (e.g., disease burden or cost, etc.) along with qualitative attributes (e.g., special populations, outbreak/pandemic concerns, or alignment with existing immunization schedules or infrastructure) in the generation of comparative, prioritized rankings to inform decision-making. PriorityVax promotes auditable and rigorous deliberations; enables and captures the decision-matrix of users; and generates shareable documentation of the process to promote transparency and confidence-building among stakeholders and the public.

In resource-constrained environments, priority-setting enables complex choices that often must be made among a growing range of vaccines. Priority-setting is critical to making effective and sustainable decisions involving the introduction of new or underutilized vaccines, choices among vaccine products, and the distribution of limited supplies.

Today, every country faces these dilemmas as they attempt to optimize allocation of limited doses of various COVID-19 vaccines. Recognizing that a local context is crucial to making tractable, useful, evidence-informed decisions, PriorityVax aims to drive vaccine decisions based on locally-specific criteria encompassing health system capabilities and preferences, epidemiology, financial sustainability, and by leveraging and empowering in-country expertise and values.

Sabin’s Global Boost Community of Immunization Professionals

The Boost Community (Boost) seeks to foster a global community that enables immunization professionals to connect with peers and experts, learn skills that build capacity and advance careers and lead immunization programs in challenging contexts. Currently the Boost Community represents a powerful and diverse network of nearly 1,350 immunization professionals, including many members working at the national and sub-national levels of government, from more than 125 countries. Boost is currently supporting its members as they prepare for COVID-19 vaccine rollout in their respective countries by offering a monthly listening and learning series around transferrable lessons learned from vaccine introduction. Moreover, Sabin has been partnering with Dalberg and the JSI Research & Training Institute, Inc., on the COVID-19 Vaccine Equity Project which aims to support immunization professionals from low- and middle-income countries as they operationalize equitable COVID-19 vaccine programs.

Join Us! COVIDaction Vaccine Data Co-Lab Event

Learn more about PriorityVax and Boost at the COVIDaction Vaccine Data Co-Lab Event where Sabin will be presenting alongside Fraym and Surgo Ventures to discuss ongoing partnerships with governments on vaccine allocation and prioritization programs.

Join the FCDO-funded COVIDaction program, NetHope, and the Global Partnership for Sustainable Development Data (GPSDD) for:

· An overview of key data gaps and needs by LMIC governments for COVID-19 vaccine allocation and prioritization.

· Panel discussion with Q&A exploring vaccine allocation challenges and opportunities shared by panelists from diverse roles and perspectives.

· Annonucement of the next funding opportunity for the Vaccine Data Co-Lab.

Details and How to Join

When: April 15th, at 9am EDT/2pm BST/4pm EAT (2-hour event)

Where: Register for the Zoom call here

ENGAGE: Follow the event on @sabinvaccine @COVIDactionTech @NetHope_org @Data4SDGs #VaxDataCoLab #COVIDaction

Learn More

Learn more about how to navigate the PriorityVax platform in the User Guide and read our latest publication in BMJ Global Health about the Uganda National Immunisation Technical Advisory Group’s experience with SMART Vaccines 2.0 (now PriorityVax).
Visit https://bit.ly/PriorityVax or contact priorityvax@sabin.org for more information.

About the Sabin Vaccine Institute

The Sabin Vaccine Institute is a leading advocate for expanding vaccine access and uptake globally, advancing vaccine research and development, and amplifying vaccine knowledge and innovation. Unlocking the potential of vaccines through partnership, Sabin has built a robust ecosystem of funders, innovators, implementers, practitioners, policy makers and public stakeholders to advance its vision of a future free from preventable diseases. As a non-profit with more than two decades of experience, Sabin is committed to finding solutions that last and extending the full benefits of vaccines to all people, regardless of who they are or where they live. At Sabin, we believe in the power of vaccines to change the world.