AMES, Iowa — EDITOR'S NOTE: The video above is from Nov. 19, 2021.
Researchers at Iowa State University found the Center for Disease Control and Prevention's vaccine rollout strategy was close to optimal after comparing it to 17.5 million possible strategies.
The study looked at metrics like cases and predicted deaths, and ultimately found there was no way to improve one of those without having an adverse effect on the other.
Based on those findings, the study found the CDC's decision to prioritize health care workers and other essential workers while not prioritizing children under the age of 16 was optimal.
However, there was room for improvement when it came to people with comorbidities.
"They did not really focus or differentiate much between people who have pre-existing conditions that make you more likely to have a worse case of COVID and they only looked at that in the general public, but they did not differentiate in any other group of the population," said one of the authors of the study, Claus Kadelka, in an interview with Local 5 affiliate KCRG TV-9.
Researchers are now looking into booster shots and what could happen if certain segments of the population don't get one. Those results could inform outreach strategies to get more people boosted in the long run.
KCRG contributed to this story.
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