COVID-19 | Epidemiology and data support
The COVID-19 pandemic is hitting our society and citizens hard, in Europe and all over the world, generating a health crisis whose proportions and impacts have no precedent in recent history, and which is yet to be fully understood. An emergency, that to be tackled requires institutional and key science actors to join forces and coordinate efforts and identify viable science-based approaches.
LifeWatch ERIC welcomed the initiative undertaken by ESFRI for “aggregating information about dedicated services offered by Research Infrastructures and communicating all relevant actions as broadly as possibly” on a unique web page where the information collected is clearly organised, immediately available and regularly updated.
LifeWatch ERIC submitted a proposal to the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation on a joint initiative, involving a group of international scientists with long-track experience in machine learning and modelling, to create dedicated epidemiology and data support services. Expected to become available in the next few months, the services will make it possible to:
• Implement a large set of scenarios and model simulations to establish alternative trajectories of the spread of SARS-CoV-2.
• Perform an extensive sensitivity analysis to understand the major sources of uncertainty associated with model projections.
• Develop an on-line decision support system platform enabling stakeholders in the public and private sectors to make queries about risks in specific locations and time periods.
• Support the federation, provenance and accountability mechanisms associated with distributed (e-)Resources (databases, publications, media, software, etc.) through Blockchain-based technologies