COVID19 vaccines as boosters or first doses: simulating scenarios to minimize infections and deaths

Omar El Deeb; Joseph El Khoury Edde; Omar El Deeb; Joseph El Khoury Edde

doi:10.3934/biophy.2024014

AIMS Biophysics

2024, Volume 11, Issue 2: 239-254. doi: 10.3934/biophy.2024014

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Research article

COVID19 vaccines as boosters or first doses: simulating scenarios to minimize infections and deaths

Omar El Deeb ^{1
,
,},
Joseph El Khoury Edde ²

1.
Department of Mathematics, University of Warwick, United Kingdom
2.
Gilbert and Rose-Marie Chagoury School of Medicine, Lebanese American University, Lebanon

Received: 06 April 2024 Revised: 28 May 2024 Accepted: 17 June 2024 Published: 26 June 2024

Public health authorities face the issue of optimal vaccine distribution during the spread of pandemics. In this paper, we study the optimal way to distribute a finite supply rate of COVID-19 doses between either the first or second doses for unvaccinated individuals and the third doses (booster shots) for fully vaccinated individuals. We introduce a novel compartmental model that accommodates the vaccinated populations. This Booster model is implemented to simulate two prototypes of populations: one with a highly infected and highly vaccinated proportion, and another with a lowly infected and lowly vaccinated percentage. We namely use sample data from Russia and Djibouti, respectively.Our findings show that around one quarter of the vaccines should be employed as booster shots and the rest as first and second doses to minimize the deaths for the first type of population. On the other hand, the second type of population can minimize their number of deaths by mainly focusing on administering the initial two doses, rather than giving any booster shots. The novel Booster model allows us to study the effect of the third dose on a community and provides a useful tool to draw public policies on the distribution of vaccines during pandemics.
- COVID-19,
- vaccination,
- booster shot,
- compartmental model,
- simulation
Citation: Omar El Deeb, Joseph El Khoury Edde. COVID19 vaccines as boosters or first doses: simulating scenarios to minimize infections and deaths[J]. AIMS Biophysics, 2024, 11(2): 239-254. doi: 10.3934/biophy.2024014

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Abstract

Public health authorities face the issue of optimal vaccine distribution during the spread of pandemics. In this paper, we study the optimal way to distribute a finite supply rate of COVID-19 doses between either the first or second doses for unvaccinated individuals and the third doses (booster shots) for fully vaccinated individuals. We introduce a novel compartmental model that accommodates the vaccinated populations. This Booster model is implemented to simulate two prototypes of populations: one with a highly infected and highly vaccinated proportion, and another with a lowly infected and lowly vaccinated percentage. We namely use sample data from Russia and Djibouti, respectively.Our findings show that around one quarter of the vaccines should be employed as booster shots and the rest as first and second doses to minimize the deaths for the first type of population. On the other hand, the second type of population can minimize their number of deaths by mainly focusing on administering the initial two doses, rather than giving any booster shots. The novel Booster model allows us to study the effect of the third dose on a community and provides a useful tool to draw public policies on the distribution of vaccines during pandemics.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful for many useful and constructive comments suggested by two anonymous reviewers.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Author contributions

EE J. performed the simulations and coding and wrote the first draft. ED O. designed the study and wrote the final draft.

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