AI4Pandemics Talk #13: Jude Kong, York University

Title: The impact of social, economic, environmental factors on the dynamics of COVID-19

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has reached a stage where there is now sufficient data to infer whether the basic reproduction number (R0) varies across countries, and what demographic, social, and environmental factors, other than interventions, characterize vulnerability to the virus. In this talk, I will present the first global estimate of R0 across all continents, and the results of a comprehensive investigation on what social, economic, and environmental factors characterize vulnerability to the virus. Understanding how space and time dependent factors predispose a community to a different COVID-19 rate of increase is essential to assessing the efficacy of interventions.