Study looks into who should receive COVID-19 vaccine first

BOULDER, Colo. -- As Colorado prepares for its first shipment of the COVID-19 vaccine, a study out of CU Boulder discovered what would happen if certain people received the vaccine first.

The study was done in part by Daniel Larremore a computational biologist at the BioFrontiers Institute and Kate Bubar, a graduate student in the Department of Applied Mathematics. Their research found that in some cases, people who already had COVID-19 should step aside and give their place in the vaccine line to someone else.

“Our research suggests that prioritizing people who have not yet had COVID could allow hard-hit communities to stretch those first doses farther and get to some of the herd immunity effects sooner,” Larremore says. 

The study also finds that if saving lives is the main goal, people 65 and older should get the vaccine first. “What we found is that prioritizing adults over 65 was actually the best way to reduce mortality across almost all of the scenarios and all the countries that we studied," Larremore says, which is also the state's current plan.

If reducing future infections is the objective, 20 to 49-year-olds should get the first doses. Larremore says, “That approach wouldn’t reduce deaths the most but it would reduce infections the most.” Since that age group is still active in the community meaning they are more likely to spread the virus.

In very few cases the study found vaccinating children first made sense.

However, Larremore believes the decision to protect our most vulnerable citizens was the best way to go.

To see the study, click here.