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Friday
Mar272020

Virus Outbreak simulator

The Liston lab has collaborated with Dr Simon Andrews at Babraham Bioinformatics to create an interactive model of virus outbreak spreading. We are asking for feedback on this beta version, try it out and tweet to us at Virus Break.

To play Virus Outbreak, pick a virus (Coronavirus, flu, ebola or measles) and simulate a viral outbreak in the community. The default settings are based on real medical data, but you can modify the viral properties - change the virulence (rate of new infections), lethality, incubation period and symptomatic period. Find out why an ebola virus with the virulence of measles is the worst nightmare of virologists, run simulations of flu vs Coronavirus to see why medical experts are sounding the alarm. 

In Virus Outbreak, you don't only control the virus, you control the response against the virus. Let the virus run free to create "herd immunity", or pick between vaccination, quarantine or social distancing to see what difference they can make. Change your mind on the policy? Hit "stop", go into properties to change the policy, then go back and hit "start" to see how the simulation changes. Take a look at this video where we start social distancing after the outbreak is already established:

New infections grind to a halt. It takes a week for the death rate to drop, because there are asymptomatic people built into the system, but it works! Give it a try here.

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