@article{41389fd0f35846bd84fde3b5ccb7a970,
title = "Utilizing direct and indirect information to improve the COVID-19 vaccination booster scheduling",
abstract = "Current global COVID-19 booster scheduling strategies mainly focus on vaccinating high-risk populations at predetermined intervals. However, these strategies overlook key data: the direct insights into individual immunity levels from active serological testing and the indirect information available either through sample-based sero-surveillance, or vital demographic, location, and epidemiological factors. Our research, employing an age-, risk-, and region-structured mathematical model of disease transmission—based on COVID-19 incidence and vaccination data from Israel between 15 May 2020 and 25 October 2021—reveals that a more comprehensive strategy integrating these elements can significantly reduce COVID-19 hospitalizations without increasing existing booster coverage. Notably, the effective use of indirect information alone can considerably decrease COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, without the need for additional vaccine doses. This approach may also be applicable in optimizing vaccination strategies for other infectious diseases, including influenza.",
keywords = "COVID-19, SEIR model, Transmission model, Vaccination, Value of information",
author = "Yotam Dery and Matan Yechezkel and Irad Ben-Gal and Dan Yamin",
note = "Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} The Author(s) 2024.",
year = "2024",
month = dec,
doi = "10.1038/s41598-024-58690-8",
language = "אנגלית",
volume = "14",
journal = "Scientific Reports",
issn = "2045-2322",
publisher = "Nature Research",
number = "1",
}