Abstract

This special themed section of Value in Health with a focus on the health economics of vaccines seems timely with potentially various coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines being close to market access. Although COVID-19 vaccines will likely not immediately be subject to health economics scrutiny, in the post–COVID-19 peak era there will soon be more emphasis on health economics when broader high-risk groups will be targeted and boosters and revaccinations are to be decided on.¹ Considerations now eminent in controlling COVID-19 (eg, economic impacts, specific cost-effectiveness methodologies, basic reproduction rate estimates, real-world data calibrations, discounting of long-term effects, transmission modeling) have been present for other potentially vaccine-preventable infections for decades. The articles in this themed section address all those issues, with illustrations for meningococcal, varicella, human papilloma, and influenza vaccines. Finally, it is argued that a broader scope (as well as an adapted view) is needed that justifies the specifics that vaccines pose. This is in line with a recent statement of the World Health Organization.²