The Societal Value of Vaccination in the Age of COVID-19

Abstract

In recent years, academics and policymakers have increasingly recognized that the full societal value of vaccination encompasses broad health, economic, and social benefits beyond avoided morbidity and mortality due to infection by the targeted pathogen and limited health care costs. Nevertheless, standard economic evaluations of vaccines continue to focus on a relatively narrow set of health-centric benefits, with consequences for vaccination policies and public investments. The COVID-19 pandemic illustrates in stark terms the multiplicity and magnitude of harms that infectious diseases may inflict on society. COVID-19 has overtaxed health systems, disrupted routine immunization programs, forced school and workplace closures, impeded the operation of international supply chains, suppressed aggregate demand, and exacerbated existing social inequities. The obvious nature of the pandemic’s broad effects could conceivably convince more policymakers to identify and account for the full societal impacts of infectious disease when evaluating the potential benefits of vaccination. Such a shift could make a big difference in how we allocate societal resources in the service of population health and in how much we stand to gain from that spending. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print April 15, 2021: e1–e6. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2020.306114 )

Seasonal influenza in children: Costs for the health system and society in Europe

“…However, in most European countries influenza vaccination in healthy children is still widely debated and only a minority of industrialized countries include universal influenza vaccination in their pediatric immunization programs 4 . Indeed, allocating resources to influenza vaccination campaign is not always considered a priority for the National Health Authorities, albeit its recommendation free of charge for the whole pediatric population should be encouraged: improving children's health, vaccination also contributes to enhanced societal economic well‐being with significant cost savings for all the levels of government 36–40 . Childhood vaccination may also result in societal benefits, reducing onward transmission in households, preventing premature disability or death among parents and grandparents and gaining number of quality‐adjusted life‐years 41,42 …”

Key predictors of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Malaysia: An integrated framework

“…It is widely recognized that vaccination effectively reduces the risk of getting and spreading the COVID-19 virus [ 35 , 36 ]. However, the success of the vaccination program depends on the willingness of all population segments to be vaccinated, given that significant portions of the population still fall into two segments—those who are unsure about vaccination and those unlikely to get vaccinated.…”

Immune response to the third COVID-19 vaccine dose is related to lymphocyte count in multiple sclerosis patients treated with fingolimod

“…A significant decrease in the antibody level was associated with the presence and degree of lymphopenia [ 8 , 9 ]. Inability to achieve immune protection can have deleterious effects for patients as they are at a greater risk of COVID-19 infection, need to preserve social distance and avoid social interactions that can lead to increased psychological stress [ 10 , 11 ]. Moreover, these patients may risk the community for a greater viral transmission, and therefore, it is mandatory to assess possible benefits from additional SARS-CoV-2 vaccination.…”