As the rollout of Covid-19 vaccines gets underway in the United States, the country is confronting a major IT challenge: how to track distribution of the vaccines and determine who receives them. This is crucial to ensure individuals get the recommended number of doses, that guidelines determining who is next in line are followed, and that enough of the U.S. population — at least 60% to 70% — is vaccinated to achieve herd immunity.
Rolling Out the Covid Vaccine Is a Huge IT Challenge
Four strategies to ensure the vaccination effort is effective, equitable, and secure.
December 21, 2020
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Summary.
The data infrastructure in the United States can’t adequately support the effort to vaccinate the U.S. population against Covid-19. Four steps must be taken: standardize the way personal health data is exchanged; align states’ immunization registries and state and federal reporting analytics; design immunization “passports” that are portable, equitable, and protect privacy; and address privacy, portability, and cybersecurity tradeoffs.