Groups – A rambling mind

Pandemic modelling review

Charts 21/22/23/24 with all 4 age groups for scenario UK023 with vaccinations. 17th May 1.8% ,19th July 1% and 1st Sep 2% mean NPI relaxations. v3 transmission k11 = 1, var_eff = 70/85%, fss x1 and fmort x1. Model 800 day outcomes to April 12th 2022 to November 6th. Active, all infected and serious modelled cases

Vaccination has somewhat stabilised the SARS-Cov-2 pandemic in the UK. I summarise the capabilities that I have found necessary and useful in modelling the behaviour of the pandemic; successive variants, different population age-groups, the effect of Government NPIs, and vaccinations.

Exploring new variants, vaccines and NPIs

Chart 303 for the grouped model UK929: modelled 800 day outcome for all variants for serious cases and deaths, with 2021 NPI relaxations up to June 21st 2021

There has been increasing concern recently about SARS-Cov-2 variants that might escape vaccines to some extent, as well as having different transmission rates (as the Kent variant does), and causing different severity of illness with higher mortality. I have added a vaccination efficacy modifier, var_eff, by variant, as a multiplier to the standard vaccination efficacy, vac_eff, to help model such potential variants that have a partial or total capability to escape vaccines, and this post shows examples of how that works, using a third variant introduced to the model on January 1st 2021. In addition, I have completed adding fSS (the fraction of people becoming seriously sick from each variant) and fmort (fatality of the variant) by Covid variant.

Tuning the age and vulnerability model

Chart 19 for the grouped model UK957: modelled 800 day outcome compared with reported data to April 21st for active cases and deaths, with 2021 NPI relaxations up to June 21st 2021

In my latest post on March 26th I described a new Coronavirus group model, based on work I had done as a UK case study in support of Prof. Alex de Visscher’s paper, in conjunction with Dr. Tom Sutton, on “Second-wave Dynamics of COVID-19: Impact of Behavioral Changes, Immunity Loss, New Strains, and Vaccination” which has now been published for peer review as a pre-print on Springer’s site at https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-195879/v1. I have now added the latest UK vaccination progress figures, and the UK Government’s announced intentions for the near future regarding Non Pharmaceutical Interventions (NPIs). I have also updated mortality and infection characteristics for the four different population groups in the model.

Age and vulnerability related Coronavirus modelling

Chart 209 showing modelled and reported cumulative cases and deaths to 800 days in the groups model

In my most recent post on February 12th, I described modelling work I had done in support of Prof. Alex de Visscher’s paper, in conjunction with Dr. Tom Sutton, on “Second-wave Dynamics of COVID-19: Impact of Behavioral Changes, Immunity Loss, New Strains, and Vaccination” which has now been published for peer review as a pre-print on Springer’s site at https://www.researchsquare.com/article/rs-195879/v1. I have now added vaccination and multiple variants I had already added to our previous model into the new grouped population model, and this blog post reports on progress with that new model.