Open AccessEpidemic interventions: insights from classic results
Author(s) -
Julia R. Gog,
T. Déirdre Hollingsworth
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
philosophical transactions - royal society. biological sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.753
H-Index - 272
eISSN - 1471-2970
pISSN - 0962-8436
DOI - 10.1098/rstb.2020.0263
Subject(s) - pandemic , psychological intervention , social distance , covid-19 , simple (philosophy) , computer science , epidemic model , management science , data science , risk analysis (engineering) , infectious disease (medical specialty) , disease , epistemology , biology , medicine , economics , virology , environmental health , outbreak , population , philosophy , pathology , psychiatry
Analytical expressions and approximations from simple models have performed a pivotal role in our understanding of infectious disease epidemiology. During the current COVID-19 pandemic, while there has been proliferation of increasingly complex models, still the most basic models have provided the core framework for our thinking and interpreting policy decisions. Here, classic results are presented that give insights into both the role of transmission-reducing interventions (such as social distancing) in controlling an emerging epidemic, and also what would happen if insufficient control is applied. Though these are simple results from the most basic of epidemic models, they give valuable benchmarks for comparison with the outputs of more complex modelling approaches. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Modelling that shaped the early COVID-19 pandemic response in the UK’.