If You Build it, Will They Vaccinate? The Impact of COVID-19 Vaccine Sites on Vaccination Rates and Outcomes

Abstract

At least one co-author has disclosed additional relationships of potential relevance for this research. Further information is available online at http://www.nber.org/papers/w30429.ack NBER working papers are circulated for discussion and comment purposes. They have not been peer-reviewed or been subject to the review by the NBER Board of Directors that accompanies official NBER publications.

Evaluating expectations from social and behavioral science about COVID-19 and lessons for the next pandemic

“…Encouraging evidence found that simplifying choice architecture and making options salient (e.g., through personalized text messages) as well as making it easy to become vaccinated led to reductions in vaccine hesitancy 50,119 . The same was found for improving availability of locations to receive a vaccine 116 .…”

“…However, this was not because there was an absence of evidence relating to this issue. In fact, substantial research indicated that threat perception -and willful decisions to ignore risks to self and others -were a major factor during the pandemic [116][117][118] . However, we chose not to create an additional generic claim to assess evidence related to this not only to maintain consistency in the method but because much of the research on this topic is heavily associated with the polarization, messaging, and misinformation themes.…”

“…However, we chose not to create an additional generic claim to assess evidence related to this not only to maintain consistency in the method but because much of the research on this topic is heavily associated with the polarization, messaging, and misinformation themes. However, there is clear and compelling evidence that deliberate decisions to ignore health information had negative impacts during the pandemic 116,117 .…”

European Vaccine-rollout Policy, Unraveled Markets, and Moral Externalities

“…Although recent experiences know that there will be many demands on health systems and frontline health-care workers during and beyond the threat of COVID-19 (or any other pandemic), continuing preventive health services, especially children's vaccinations, are of great importance for the months and years to come (Dinleyici et al, 2021). Brownstein et al (2022) find that the presence of a participating retail pharmacy vaccination site in a county leads to an approximately 26% increase in the per-capita number of doses administered, possibly indicating that proximity and familiarity play a substantial role in vaccine take-up decisions. They also show that increases in county-level per capita participating retail pharmacies lead to an increase in COVID-19 vaccination rates and a decline in the number of new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, with substantial heterogeneity based on county rurality, political leanings, income, and race composition (Brownstein et al, 2022).…”

“…Brownstein et al (2022) find that the presence of a participating retail pharmacy vaccination site in a county leads to an approximately 26% increase in the per-capita number of doses administered, possibly indicating that proximity and familiarity play a substantial role in vaccine take-up decisions. They also show that increases in county-level per capita participating retail pharmacies lead to an increase in COVID-19 vaccination rates and a decline in the number of new COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths, with substantial heterogeneity based on county rurality, political leanings, income, and race composition (Brownstein et al, 2022). The relationship they estimate suggests that averting one COVID-19 case, hospitalization, and death requires approximately 25, 200, and 1,500 county-level vaccine total doses, respectively (Brownstein et al, 2022).…”