Abstract
We examine the problem of allocating a limited supply of vaccine for controlling an infectious disease with the goal of minimizing the effective reproduction number R(e). We consider an SIR model with two interacting populations and develop an analytical expression that the optimal vaccine allocation must satisfy. With limited vaccine supplies, we find that an all-or-nothing approach is optimal. For certain special cases, we determine the conditions under which the optimal R(e) is below 1. We present an example of vaccine allocation for COVID-19 and show that it is optimal to vaccinate younger individuals before older individuals to minimize R(e) if less than 59% of the population can be vaccinated. The analytical conditions we develop provide a simple means of determining the optimal allocation of vaccine between two population groups to minimize R(e).