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Get The News Out Loudly And Quickly: Modeling The Influence Of The Media On Limiting Infectious Disease, Anna Mummert, Howard Weiss Aug 2020

Get The News Out Loudly And Quickly: Modeling The Influence Of The Media On Limiting Infectious Disease, Anna Mummert, Howard Weiss

Mathematics Faculty Research

During outbreaks of infectious diseases with high morbidity and mortality, individuals closely follow media reports of the outbreak. Many will attempt to minimize contacts with other individuals in order to protect themselves from infection and possibly death. This process is called social distancing. Social distancing strategies include restricting socializing and travel, and using barrier protections. We use modeling to show that for short-term outbreaks, social distancing can have a large influence on reducing outbreak morbidity and mortality. In particular, public health agencies working together with the media can significantly reduce the severity of an outbreak by providing timely accounts of …