As two-thirds of the 50 states began relaxing their anti-COVID-19 restrictions, a May 15 virtual seminar convened by the University of Pennsylvania's Leonard Davis Institute of Health Economics (LDI) brought together scientists who have created different simulator models to predict the economic and health changes various levels of policy relaxations may bring.
A primary goal of these teams' research is to provide evidence-based insights to inform how a coherent national system of testing, test data aggregation and reporting, and contact tracing could be used to more accurately know and manage the true scale and daily dynamics of the contagion. This is of particular importance during the interim before effective treatments or vaccines are developed. On the economic side, the same scientific work is essential to informing the reestablishment of the consumer confidence necessary for national economic recovery.
At the sixth LDI virtual "Experts at Home" seminar, panelists discussed the insights and findings from their latest simulator updates. The theme of the session was "Are We Ready to Reopen the Economy?" and it couldn't have been more timely.