Analysis of barriers in effective immunization against COVID 19 using F-DEMATEL

Abstract

India had broken all the records and counts of confirmed COVID-19 cases per day and daily death toll reached over thousands. India is way far from other developed nations in the number of vaccine doses per 100 population. Although vaccination is an effective measure to be followed to overcome this grave situation, still certain misconceptions and rumors throughout the country have pulled a decent part of the population from being vaccinated. Another big challenge is production and supply of vaccines to meet the demand. COVID-19 pandemic will not end until the entire population gets vaccinated that would protect them from this deadly disease. Therefore, this paper aims at clearly identifying the factors and subsequently prioritizing them as barriers in effective immunization against COVID-19 in India following multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) technique. In this study, a fuzzy decision-making trail and evaluation laboratory (F-DEMATEL) approach is applied for understanding the contextual relationship among the barriers for effective immunization against COVID-19. The methodology is followed in a fuzzy environment to address the issue of uncertainty in the data gathered. The result suggests that the ‘Misinformation/ Misconceptions/ Lack of vaccine education in underserved communities’, ‘Lack of information regarding a vaccination center close to home’, ‘Difficulties in getting appointments’, ‘Supply chain issues in the distribution of vaccine’, and ‘Lack of access for marginalized communities’ are the important barriers in effective immunization against COVID-19. Recommendations have been made to overcome this situation and help to immunize the population and drag COVID-19 down to earth.