Editorial

Editorial
by Gurumurthy Kalyanaram

COVID 19: Forecast of the diffusion
by Gurumurthy Kalyanaram

Covid-19 pandemic has devastated economies and societies. Forecasting the diffusion of the virus has been challenging. Over the last four months, several empirical models have been built. We present them here in very abbreviated manner. Then I discuss my own forecasts for the United States. Those forecasts changed substantially over time with new data and assumptions.

Empirical Models

SEIR Theory

This is the basic epidemiological theory/framework. Here, the population is described to be in one of four stochastic states: Susceptible, Exposed, Infectious and Recovered (looping back to Susceptible state). Assume S is the fraction of susceptible individuals (those able to contract the disease), E is the fraction of exposed individuals (those who have been infected but are not yet infectious), I is the fraction of infective individuals (those capable of transmitting the disease), and R is the fraction of recovered individuals (those who have become immune). We then have: S + E + I + R = 1

University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) Model

This statistical model has received much attention from policy makers, scholars and media. The model was first launched on or about March 26th, 2020. Since then, there have been changes to the model and the forecasts. Most salient of these changes has been the underlying assumptions about social distancing. For more details, please see: http://www.healthdata.org/ Read Full Article