Coronavirus DBQ
What is an NPI? Give two different examples of NPIs.
An NPi is a non-pharmaceutical intervention. Two examples would be social-distancing and
closing schools or universities.
What is the difference between suppression and mitigation?
The aim of suppression is to stop the spread of the virus with little to no human-to-human
contact. A suppression method is basically incorporating NPIs until a vaccine is found and
readily available.
The aim of mitigation is to reduce the public health impact of the epidemic. This would not
include as many NPIs as suppression, but rather find a way to get the vaccine to the people
who need it most first, and then build a sort of herd immunity.
Ideally, how long should virus suppression methods be maintained?
Virus suppression methods should be maintained for 12-18 months or even longer. Basically the
time it takes to make a vaccine and have it readily available.
Introduction
Why is COVID-19 compared to the 1918 Influenza virus?
Influenza is the only past virus that is similar to the scale of COVID-19.
What is R?
The reproduction number, or the average number of secondary cases each case generates.
How does the value of R differ in Suppression-based strategies and Mitigation-based
strategies?
In suppression strategies, the goal is to reduce R, while in mitigation strategies, the focus is not
as much on R, but rather on the overall health impacts.
What does this paper say about the ethical and economic implications of the strategies?
It says that in this article, they are not looking at the ethical or economic implications of either
strategy.
Methods
What are the four main places the researchers are assuming transmission occurs?
Within a household, at school, in the workplace, and in the wider community.
The researchers assume R0=2.4, but examine values between 2.0 and 2.6. What does this
mean?
They are just estimating, so they want to make sure they adjust the variables and see how that
affects the data.
What percentage of infections are not likely identified as cases?
40%-50%
What is IFR?
The infection fatality ratio for a virus.
What is the percent chance you will die if you are infected with Coronavirus? What about your
parents? Your grandparents?
There is a 0.006% chance that I will die if infected with Coronavirus.
There is a 0.6% chance that my parents will die if infected with Coronavirus.
There is a 9.3% chance that my grandparents will die if infected with Coronavirus.
What are the 5 NPI strategies considered by the study?
CI- which is case isolation in the home
HQ- which is voluntary home quarantine
SDO- which is social distancing of those over 70 years of age
SD- which is social distancing of the entire population
PC- which is closure of schools and universities
Results
What percentage of the...
