Mathematics contributed to projections during the covid-19 pandemic

In early 2020, the world was surprised by the rapid spread of the covid-19 virus. Strict social distancing measures were promptly implemented to contain the hitherto unknown virus. There was an agile response from scientists, both those in the health area and researchers who started to look into this topic, as well as mathematicians who subsidized governments with models used in the projections that supported the need for lockdowns to reduce the transmission rate of the disease. It is about the contribution of the mathematical community during the pandemic that the head professor of the Department of Applied Mathematics at the State University of Campinas (Unicamp) Paulo Silva will address at the 34th Brazilian Mathematics Colloquium. Considered the most comprehensive scientific meeting of the Brazilian mathematics community, the meeting will be held from Monday (24) to Friday (28) by the Institute of Pure and Applied Mathematics (IMPA), in Rio de Janeiro. “There was an important work by an English university in which they made projections showing that, if you followed the traditional epidemiological models, the combination of a very infectious disease with a totally susceptible population because it was a new disease would generate overload in the health system. It was based on this projection built from mathematical models of epidemiology that the first decisions were taken to make lockdowns to reduce the transmission capacity of the disease”, said Paulo Silva. The professor says that, from then on, governments supported by the scientific community began to use epidemiological mathematical models to make their decisions when analyzing the degree of transmissibility of covid-19. “The entire methodology developed can be used in future pandemics or even in diseases that already exist.” This year’s edition of the colloquium will count on the participation of six international plenary members, among them, mathematician Federico Ardila, a researcher at the University of San Francisco (USA), who has worked alongside medalist Field June Huh.

Agência Brasil