Google Data Used in Vaccine Equity Planner Tool to Identify COVID-19 Vaccine Deserts

June 15, 2021

Google has released its COVID-19 vaccination data on github, updated weekly to reflect changes in vaccination locations and availability. The dataset builds on Google Maps data to identify areas of the country where access to vaccines requires more than 15 minutes in travel time. This information is being used to generate the Vaccine Equity Planner tool. The effort to identify vaccine deserts is a result of collaboration by Ariadne Labs, Harvard, and Boston Children’s Hospital and is meant to support interdisciplinary stakeholder decision-making processes.

“Delivering COVID-19 vaccines to people equitably requires leaders to plan and upgrade their delivery strategies regularly. We built the Vaccine Equity Planner to help public health officials, providers, employers, researchers and others assess various scenarios to support equitable access. The tool identifies “vaccine deserts,” where people have little or no convenient access to vaccination and potential new vaccination sites to address the gaps. The tool is in beta and will be updated regularly with new data and recommendations to support decision making.” Learn more here.