Pandemic Journal

Simple Transmission Networks: A Student Project

 My name is Neha Deosthali and I am a junior at the Liberal Arts and Science Academy in Austin, Texas. During the initial stages of this pandemic, I got interested in how the virus spreads through a community and wanted to learn more about the SARS-CoV-2 Virus. Thanks to Dr. Spencer Fox and Dr. Lauren …

What can our wastewater tell us about COVID-19 outbreaks?

Clinically diagnosed COVID-19 cases are only the tip of the iceberg. A significant obstacle in COVID-19 surveillance is the large proportion of infections that go undiagnosed either because individuals are asymptomatic or not tested. Meanwhile, estimates of COVID-19 prevalence are based on the number of clinically diagnosed cases, limiting the success of health care initiatives …

Will a vaccine stop the pandemic?

In order to stop transmission, a vaccine would need to provide sterilizing immunity. This means that the vaccine would completely prevent infection by the virus. Isn’t that what vaccines are supposed to do? Ideally, yes, but in the real world, this isn’t always the case. Location matters! All of the vaccines that are currently being …

IMCI welcomes Lauren Ancel Meyers

I am very excited that Lauren Ancel Meyers will be speaking to us about her work today as part of the IMCI/IBEST seminar series. Lauren is a highly decorated researcher whose thinking around network-based disease modeling has been extremely influential. During the current pandemic, she established the COVID-19 modeling consortium at the University of Texas …

Test again? Yes!

The University of Idaho is offering testing on an ongoing basis to students, faculty and staff. So you might be wondering whether you should get tested again, and when you should do it. If you traveled for Labor Day weekend, or had contacts with individuals outside of your usual network, you should seek one of …

Here We Are, Idaho

I’ll start by introducing myself: I have been a mathematics professor at the University of Idaho since 2007. My primary research area is number theory, a beautiful and esoteric subject which asks deceptively simple questions about the symmetries of numbers and possible relationships between them. (If you have a spare hour, here is a video …