• Question: can you use maths to predict where a desiese will spread o next?

    Asked by Els_07 to Liz on 13 Jun 2017.
    • Photo: Liz Buckingham-Jeffery

      Liz Buckingham-Jeffery answered on 13 Jun 2017:

      Hi!

      Yeah, that is what a lot of epidemiologists do. We make mathematical models and write computer programs, and look at the data that already exists. From this we try to predict things like where an outbreak will spread, how fast, and what would be good methods to stop it from spreading or to slow it down.

Comments

  • christldonnelly commented on :

    We can predict things, but there are always elements we don’t understand or just chance. Who will you sit next to on the bus? Will they infect you or a person who might fly this evening to Senegal and take the infection there. We do our best though!