COVID-19 : changes in the ranking of Polish regions according to the criterion taking into account both the reluctance to vaccinate and the number of deaths

Abstract

PURPOSE: The aim of the article is to present a real-time assessment of the effectiveness of pandemic management in a selected country, here - on the example of Poland.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: It is hypothesized that the territorial distribution of deaths due to the pandemic should be similar to the population in voivodships. The Gini index is an established method of measuring this uniformity. A similar hypothesis applies to the uniform distribution of vaccines.

FINDINGS: The knowledge about uneven distribution should be an incentive for decisionmakers to take preventive measures to reduce disproportions between regions according to the indicator taking into account the number of deaths per million inhabitants and similarly the number of vaccinations. The result is a ranking of provinces from worst to best in terms of fighting the pandemic.

PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Such a classification should change the attitudes of the central authorities towards local decision-makers.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE: The bi-criterion proposed by the authors includes a component related to vaccinations (with a plus) and deaths (with a minus). The more vaccinations and fewer deaths per million inhabitants, the better for a given region.