Application of Supply Chain Principles to Pandemic Planning

When planning responses to pandemics, public policies should be based on appropriate scientific fields of study. Accurate application of non-pharmaceutical interventions rests on knowledge of pathogens’ biology and pathogenesis; similarly, pharmacological responses to pandemics policies should be designed to adhere to supply chain management principles. The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred efforts to strengthen the scientific foundations for public health response options for this and future outbreaks. For example, policies relating to school or work closure, among others, have been subjected to rigorous analysis using dynamic infectious disease models. Our focus in this paper is on the design and optimal operation of a vaccine allocation system based on fundamental principles that have a long pedigree in operations research. We indicate what attributes a vaccine supply chain should have and how capacities for each element of the supply chain impact, over time, inventory requirements and their allocations. We show that maximizing vaccination person-days is optimal, minimizing dispensing locations maximizes vaccination person-days, and optimal allocations can be made using an approach presented herein