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So now that I got your attention. Let's narrow it down. Our harmless virus would be found during it's spread frenzy at a rate of
  • <100 deaths per million
    36.5%
  • 101-250 deaths per M
    12.1%
  • 251-500 deaths per M
    14.8%
  • >500 deaths per M
    36.5%
1,793 votesFinal results
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OK. It seems I have a few epidemiologists playing. Here is a curve ball. Would change the results if we "Do nothing" (let it spread unmitigated) or if we mitigate it ('lockdown, masks, etc')? I know it is harmless!! Play along.
  • Yes
    27.9%
  • No
    72.1%
1,870 votesFinal results
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So let's see. If we don't do anything, an R0=3.3 harmless virus would burn out pretty fast. And in doing so we sould be able to find positive deaths at a rate of roughly 589 deaths per million.
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Now, if instead of "Do nothing" we pull a Madrid style mitigation for 180 days and the come back to normal life?
  • It's higher
    41.2%
  • It's lower
    10%
  • Just about the same
    48.8%
1,731 votesFinal results
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It wasn't going to be so easy. If instead of a Madrid we would have done a Stockholm?
  • It's lower than Madrid
    48.2%
  • It's higher than Madrid
    10.4%
  • It's about the same
    41.4%
1,583 votesFinal results
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Interestingly the height of the spike is not much different, BUT the second is much lower. The interesting thing is that we could detect our harmless virus at an outstanding rate of 353 death per million. Weird right?
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I know right... The idea that the spread of a disease can be described linearly is wrong. Whatever you think you know about the behavior, is probably wrong (weird math). Even the smallest detail can change the outcome. Certainty it's always a trap. Principles of biology.
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But still, it is an interesting exercise to understand how sensible are the parameters to disturbances. Because that gives you context. Let's assume now this was Madrid. And there is a second clearly not harmless virus around.
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And this is how our simulation looks if Madrid continues mitigating as it would have done during the spring. Spike could start early because that would depend on our case on the seeding we do to the simulation. The overshooting could be big.
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