Disease Dynamics Decoded: What Makes a Disease Deadly, and What Can We Do? by Owen Patrick ’25

Disease Dynamics Decoded: What Makes a Disease Deadly, and What Can We Do? by Owen Patrick ’25, Monday October 30, 1:00 – 150pm, North Science Building 113, Wachenheim, Mathematics Colloquium

Mathematical modeling has proven to be a profoundly useful tool in studying the transmission of infectious diseases. In the era of COVID-19, efforts to mathematically model the factors that contribute to disease transmission have helped to inform major public health decisions. In my colloquium, I will use the SEIRS model, a system of ordinary differential equations, to explore how different disease parameters, such as the disease-induced death rate and recovery rate, interact to make a disease more deadly or more contagious. I will then build up a more complex disease transmission model involving multiple jurisdictions and use it to discuss the efficacy of some commonly implemented disease controls: vaccination, medication, isolation, and border closure.