RAPID: Collection and Archiving of Vital Data on COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution

Vaccines that are effective at protecting against COVID-19 were first approved for emergency use in the United States in December, 2020. Since that time, as vaccine supply has steadily increased, vaccines have been distributed to states in phases through a variety of channels, including hospitals, pharmacies, nursing homes, public health departments, and mass vaccination sites in an effort to vaccinate as many citizens as possible to reduce morbidity and mortality. Distributing and administering a vaccine on a large scale over a short time period, particularly under extraordinary cold storage requirements, is a challenging and complex logistical problem. This Rapid Response Research (RAPID) grant supports the collection of time-sensitive data on COVID-19 vaccine distribution and administration from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and a select number of state public health departments. The collection and archiving of time-sensitive data on the vaccination effort in the US will assist researchers in studying the distribution and enable a more efficient response to future pandemics or natural or man-made disasters.

This project will collect data on COVID-19 vaccine allocation, distribution and shipment, administration, and inventory to quantify vaccination performance measures such as lead-times, equity with respect to gender or race/ethnicity, and vaccine spoilage. In addition, the project will collect data on policies and decisions made by states that relate to vaccine distribution/administration including the date and type of eligibility expansion, distribution network, the information system used for managing vaccine distribution, number of provider sites in use at select points in time, existence of race/ethnicity elements in the data tracking, and use of state-wide call center or waiting list. All collected data will be de-identified, stored, and managed in a centralized system eventually to make available (as allowable per privacy rules) to researchers. The project will develop an online vaccination portal, whose main goal is to provide a high-level analysis of the collected data, graphics, and data downloading capabilities.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.