PAVE: Vaccine Estimator

We are delighted to invite you to use the Priority-based use of Allocated Vaccines Estimator (PAVE) tool.

With Microsoft providing technical resources, the Global Health Crisis Coordination Center (GHC3) developed a calculator to help health departments and other entities receiving limited allotments of vaccines plan for and achieve priority based allocation to populations at high risk for SARS-CoV-2 morbidity and mortality. PAVE provides a conceptual framework and calculator to plan for the distribution of vaccines, messaging campaigns with targeted community engagement, positioning vaccines into locations that will increase access to them, considering communities disproportionately affected, and ultimately getting the vaccines into the arms of people within prioritized categories. 

There are simple steps for using PAVE, which we hope will be fairly intuitive -- basic instructions are provided in paragraphs below. 

You can access PAVE through the following link:                                         

Home · Starter Portal (powerappsportals.com). 

The first step once you access the website will be to register, which will include providing your email address and entering a password.  Your estimates using PAVE will be saved for your future use, so you will be able to log back in at any time and access the calculations previously made. Once you have registered, to access the tool subsequently, you will use ‘External User Login’ to sign into PAVE.  At the time of registration, you will be asked a few basic questions about yourself which will go into your user profile, which you can change at any time.

BASIC PRIMER FOR USING PAVE

You have the option of selecting any of three immunization priority models during your calculations.  One is based on the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) COVID-19 immunization framework.  Another is built from CDC’s COVID-19 immunization playbook and a third is a “Build Your Own” model.   As CDC’s ACIP guidances will likely be fluid over the coming weeks/months, we recommend that you use the CDC immunization playbook model and move categories up or down in their order based on current ACIP recommendations.   So, as an example, the ACIP category 1A priority list, voted on during a DEC 1 meeting, lists only health care workers (including those in LTCF’s) and residents of LTCFs as the two groups to receive the first tranches of vaccine.   Using the CDC playbook model, you can keep health care workers in its current position and move up the LTCF resident category.   You then have the option of targeting 0% of all of the other categories listed in order to be completely consistent with current ACIP guidance.  Another option is to simply use the “Build Your Own” model and only include those two categories.

Once you enter the initial data for calculation, including number of vaccine doses expected, and either accepting defaults or overriding with your own estimates for vaccine wastage and 1^st and 2^nd  dose compliance, you will be taken to the data page that provides estimates for number and proportion of people within each category who can be immunized with your current allotment. Each of the data field names are accompanied by “hover bubbles”; place your cursor over the “i” below each term and a more detailed explanation will appear.  You will be able to toggle an option to “maximize first dose” or not.   Maximize first dose will show vaccines given for first dose for people within each category as you move down the priority list before assigning vaccines for second dose—this option would be used if you expect that another tranche of vaccine will be coming soon so that you can use all existing vaccine to get people started on their course.  However, since it may take a while to be certain about vaccine distribution cadences, you may wish to toggle no for this option, which then calculates what is needed for first and second dose for each category before moving to the next category in the priority list.

We appreciate your work in reducing the impact of COVID-19.  We hope you find PAVE useful as you plan for use of allotments of vaccine, and welcome your feedback regarding your user-experience and any comments and suggestions you may offer to improve the tool’s overall utility. 

Please share widely within your networks!

Thank you.

GHC3 Vaccine Equity Team