Accessibility of COVID-19 Vaccination Centers in Germany via Different Means of Transport

Abstract

In late 2020, as soon as the approval of the first vaccines against the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) became foreseeable in line with the normative political goal of providing comparable living conditions to all residents of Germany irrespective of where they live, the German national government’s national vaccination strategy called for the widespread establishment of COVID-19 vaccination centers. As the vaccination program has been rolled out, difficulties in accessing vaccination centers have been reported. Against this background, the paper considers the questions whether, where and for whom spatial inequalities in COVID-19 vaccination center accessibility in Germany might exist. Such an understanding might help to prepare for future situations when adequate disaster response requires, similar to the COVID-19 pandemic, the government to quickly reach great parts of the population in an efficient manner. To approach this question, we examine the accessibility by the means of transport foot, bicycle, car and public transport at small scale based on an accessibility model from the point of view of the “households”. We found that in contrast to the common belief COVID-19 vaccination center accessibility or inaccessibility in Germany does not seem to be a spatial phenomenon cheating non-rural regions and discriminating rural regions as anticipated, it is instead strongly dependent on people’s individual mobility capabilities in both rural and urban areas.