University of Maryland Professor Emeritus Michael O. Ball, a researcher and expert on supply chain management and system reliability, is available to discuss his position that perfect adherence to COVID vaccine allocation prioritization “is not the most desirable way to run the distribution program—or likely even possible… The rate at which vaccines are delivered to the arms of Americans is perhaps as important as anything else.”

Ball, who has held a UMD joint appointment with Robert H. Smith School of Business and Institute for Systems Research, expands this argument in a recent Morning Consult op-ed, Who’s First for Vaccines, and What’s Missed Along the Way.