MARK BARNES: Who should be at the front of the vaccine queue?
We need to approach the issue using the principle guidelines of scarce resource allocation
The allocation of scarce resources to priorities is an almost everyday feature of business planning. Experienced business leaders do it instinctively. But then business mistakes seldom cost lives and maximising the return on capital employed, say, is a relatively trivial pursuit when compared to saving lives.
When the scarce resource is a potential life-saving vaccine, the consequence of allocation error couldn’t be more serious, but the rule is still the same: maximise returns on limited resources. In Covid-19 terms, that means save as many lives as possible through an effective vaccination allocation programme. A strategy of only protecting the endangered will not be optimal...
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