Distributional Impacts of Retail Vaccine Availability

As countries transition from facing COVID-19 vaccine supply shortfalls to requiring novel strategies to facilitate vaccination, modern retail chains—often designed and located to target particular demographic groups—are a potential vaccine delivery vehicle. Using geospatial data, we quantify the proximity to vaccines created by a U.S. federal program that distributes vaccines to commercial retail pharmacies. We then quantify the impact of a proposal to provide vaccines at Dollar General, a low-priced general merchandise retailer. We show that adding Dollar General to the federal program would substantially decrease the distance to vaccine sites for low-income and minority U.S. households.