Registration required:

https://apsphysics.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_U7A52s5LQRSyQv-9Emm81A 

This talk will describe key features of the epidemiology of the COVID-19 pandemic with emphasis on the complexity of the data-generating mechanisms -- including delayed and incomplete reporting, local heterogeneity, and uncertain effectiveness of control measures -- and the challenges these pose for control. It will describe some approaches to addressing these challenges, including now-casting and detailed sensitivity analyses in models. It will conclude with a subjective view of some of the big open questions in the epidemiology of COVID-19.

Bio: Dr. Marc Lipsitch is a professor of epidemiology and director of the Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics at Harvard University. During the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, he served on President Barack Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology Working Group, as well as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s outside advisory group, “Team B,”. He has also advised the Food and Drug Administration, World Health Organization, and various governments such as Canada and Mexico on infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance. Lipsitch has drawn off this experience during the COVID-19 pandemic, providing advice to WHO, the International Monetary Fund, and several national, state, and local governments. Lipsitch has published some two dozen articles and preprints on COVID-19 with colleagues and trainees, including scenarios for social distancing, ethical and quantitative analyses of vaccine trials, coronavirus seasonality, vaccine prioritization, and other topics.