FilmmakerDarshan

 Facebook AI Research

How maps built with Facebook AI can help with COVID-19 vaccine delivery

As work continues to vaccinate most of the world’s nearly 8 billion people against COVID-19, accurate population maps are urgently needed. This need is especially great in low-income communities, where population data may be poor or out of date. Today, we’re releasing updates to our population density maps using new methods, starting with Pakistan and Scandinavia, countries where the original methodology proved insufficient in correctly identifying structures.

• After Cyclone Kenneth struck Mozambique in 2019, Direct Relief, the World Health Organization, NetHope, and Harvard School of Public Health used our high-resolution population density map to determine the number of doses of cholera vaccinations that would be needed in areas affected by flooding in Mozambique. Our maps helped inform resource allocation for the vaccination of more than 250,000 children.

• Saha Global, a nonprofit that provides access to safe drinking water to rural communities in the Northern Region of Ghana, used our population density map to pinpoint villages that were without access to water and sanitation, and extended its services to an additional 7,000 people.

• In Kenya, our nonprofit partners Cadasta and Pamoja Trust used the Facebook population density map to determine the number of people who were at risk of eviction. This information facilitated the decision to halt construction that would have displaced over 70,000 people.

Accurate population density data is critical when performing vaccination campaigns, and our newest population density maps will be particularly useful for the delivery COVID-19 vaccinations in the global south. Previously, the American Red Cross and the Ministry of Health in Malawi embarked on a measles vaccination campaign designed to cover 95 percent of households within a limited time frame. Using Facebook’s population density map, they quickly discovered that 97 percent of the landmass of Malawi was uninhabited and could be removed from any house-to-house messaging plans. As a result of consulting our maps, Red Cross volunteers were able to complete 100,000 home visits in three days. We anticipate that these same mobilization approaches can be leveraged when working to vaccine populations at scale in the global south and are working with our partners around the world to assist in this effort.