Evaluation of supply sustainability of vaccine alternatives with multi-criteria decision-making methods

Background: The treatment of the COVID-19 epidemic, whose contagious features are changing day by day, is the most current problem today throughout of the world. In order to be protected from COVID-19 and reduce its spread, it is of great importance to follow the rules such as mask, distance and hygiene. In addition, one of the most important ways to prevent the epidemic is to develop population immunity. The most important tool in having population immunity is vaccination. Aims: During the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been problems in the supply process of many products in food and health sectors. Vaccine is also one of the most difficult tools to supply. In this context, the study focused on the selection of the vaccine provided by the countries within the scope of population vaccination studies. Materials & Methods: At the selection point, the criteria affecting the purchasing process were determined and the weights of these criteria were calculated using the AHP method. Then, the criteria weights obtained were used to rank the alternatives in an integrated manner in the Preference Ranking Organization Method for Enrichment of Evaluations (PROMETHEE) and Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) methods. The results of both methods were analyzed comparatively. Results: According to the TOPSIS Method, the first alternative is Oxford-AstraZeneca for all countries, and BioNTech for all countries in the PROMETHEE method. Discussion: The vaccine storage conditions criterion is the most important in vaccine supply. The criterion with the lowest importance is Supply Cost. It has been revealed that cost elements remain in the background under pandemic conditions. Conclusion: Vaccine evaluation studies and policy recommendations are presented by considering public health in the selection of vaccine alternatives.