Optimizing vaccine site locations while considering travel inconvenience and public health outcomes

During the COVID-19 pandemic, selecting vaccination sites and allocating limited doses required balancing accessibility, disease control, and fairness. We formulate a multi-objective mixed-integer linear programming model that jointly determines the locations of mega-sites and allocates vaccine doses while explicitly incorporating travel inconvenience, disease dynamics, and equitable distribution. The model incorporates commuting patterns from both residential and workplace origins to more accurately capture population mobility, and employs a tractable objective formulation that proxies key public health goals, enabling efficient and equitable mass vaccination planning. Compared with the solution empirically used in Los Angeles County in 2020, we recommend more dispersed mega-site locations that result in a 26% reduction in travel inconvenience and avert an additional 200 infections.