The simulations driving the world’s response to Covid-19
Special report: The simulations driving the world’s response to COVID-19

        

        
            
        
        
            
                
                    

    
        
            
                NEWS FEATURE
                02 April 2020
                
                        Correction 03 April 2020
                
            

            

            
                
                
                    How epidemiologists rushed to model the coronavirus pandemic.
                
            
        
        
            
    
        
            
                
                    David Adam
                
                
                
                    
                
            
        
    

        
    
    


                    
                        
    
            
            
    
    
        
            Staff at a car-manufacturing plant in Wuhan, China, observe social-distancing measures during their lunch break. Credit: AFP/Getty
        
    

                    
                    
            
            


        
            
                
                    
                        

                        
                    
                
            

            
                

                

                
                    When Neil Ferguson visited the heart of British government in London’s Downing Street, he was much closer to the COVID-19 pandemic than he realized. Ferguson, a mathematical epidemiologist at Imperial College London, briefed officials in mid-March on the latest results of his team’s computer models, which simulated the rapid spread of the coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 through the UK population. Less than 36 hours later, he announced on Twitter that he had a fever and a cough. A positive test followed. The disease-tracking scientist had become a data point in his own project.
                    
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                Nature 580, 316-318 (2020)
                doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-020-01003-6Additional reporting by Richard Van Noorden.
                
                    Updates & Corrections
                    
                                Correction 03 April 2020: An earlier version of this article incorrectly referred to SimCity instead of The Sims video-game series.
                            
                    
                

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