Allocation of Covid-19 Vaccine in the UK

ALLOCATION OF COVID-19 VACCINE IN THE UK
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Background
1.1 COVID-19 Global Pandemic
The emergence of coronavirus (COVID-19) has devastated livelihoods and business operations across the globe. Many people changed their living standards as one of the measures to contain the containing the virus. Coronavirus has not only claimed people’s lives in the United Kingdom (UK) but also many nations across the world. There are cases of COVID-19 infection reported each daily globally, with people recovering and some succumbing to the condition. According to the global trend, more than 100 million people have been infected by the virus, with about 71 million recovering and deaths above 2 million (Craxì et al. 2021, p. 187). While these statistics are based on the global trend, the cases in the UK are also not impressive. There are more than 4 million reported cases, with deaths recorded above 127 thousand people (Roope et al. 2020, p. 558). The diseases have devastated many aspects of normal life, especially due to control challenges as the condition is transmitted from infected persons through droplets generated from coughing, sneezing, and exhaling. The UK has established certain measures, such as severe lockdowns, social distancing, and wearing of the mask but the disease is still a major problem.
1.2 The Need of Vaccine
Despite the containment measures proving ineffective from most countries, formulation of the COVID-19 vaccine has drawn the line to control the spread of the virus. The vaccine has been approved by various agencies, including WHO as safe for distribution. Nonetheless since the virus is still in its early stages, the vaccines need an allocation protocol to ensure to ensure that vulnerable individuals are protected against its potential harm. There is a need to establish proper measures that will prioritize individuals who are at higher risk of getting the virus, or play a role in its rapid spread. All the allocation strategies must ensure that the virus-related challenges are minimized. When we consider the movement of elderly and young people, we can say many young people are immobile and act as the main vectors for the disease. While the elderly is at higher risk, they are less immobile and can only contract the disease through young people. Therefore, the distribution and allocation protocols must consider the population composition, including the risks of spreading and contracting the disease. This will ensure that there is an effective formular for distributing the vaccine and allocating to the right people without imposing any dangers to others. The aim of the process must be reducing the virus spread and potential deaths of people who have never been vaccinated (Knoll, and Wonodi, 2021, p. 73). In this paper, we present a comprehensive protocol that ensures proper allocation and distribution processes are followed. The vaccine, although limited in quantity, must be allocated to both young and elderly people because the risks of spread is higher among the young people. While priority may be placed on the elderly, it is essential to consider how young people contribute to the spread of the virus because their immune system is fairly strong. Moreover, individuals with comorbidities, such as asthma, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases can be prioritized in the allocation of vaccines at each distribution point. This will reduce the number of deaths and limit the speed at which the virus is spreading.
Vaccine Distribution and Allocation Network
Given the urgent need for vaccine to mitigate the rapid spreading of COVID-19, the vaccine managerial sector needs to ensure that the UK can access and develop viable structures and processes that will promote management and deployment of the vaccine. The aim is to vaccinate the right people and at the right time without imposing limitations on the wellbeing of vulnerable people. Breaking the infection chain should never focus on the vulnerable alone. Most elderly and sick people are dependent on young individuals for care and assistance. Therefore, protecting these people requires allocation of vaccine to all people equally, especially based on their demographic composition. Some of the factors that can be considered include the number of people they live with, the age composition, and disease statistics within the area. This is an important approach that will seal all gaps and ensure that distributed vaccines are allocated to the right people who reveal high risk of infection, death, and spreading the condition. In this regard, cohesive standards and procedures for distribution and operation must be created for effective coordination and sharing of information (Wouters et al. 2021, p. 118). Agencies involved must also be trained on proper and effective way to handle people being vaccinated. There must be protocols or established hierarchy on the vaccination approach to seal all existing gaps. Areas with potential surge, based on demographic data, disease statistics, and other factors must be allocated vaccines as a priority to curb the disease spread (Bubar et al. 2021, p. 920).
Notably, the model of network could provide effective structure for distributing and allocating the vaccine. The network domains, driven by the graph theory, including network communication protocols, dynamic network and network security could serve as guideline to increase efficiency of vaccination plan. Clearly defining the key elements in vaccine distributing process as nodes, including vaccine manufacturing sites, import locations, inventory warehouses, and multi-level distribution centers is essential. This is where edges are representing information and logistic connections between nodes. The network structure could offer strategic operation plans across large scale and complexity. Additionally, there must be allocation standards included within the nodes to prioritize the right people for vaccination.
2.1 Network Operating Authorities
In order to operate the vaccine distribution and allocation network effectively, it is important to define the responsible authorities for each node and edge. In the UK it is effective the vaccine distr...