Students Build Social Distancing Calculator That Shows How Many Lives You Can Save By Staying At Home
Various restriction measures adopted by over 200 countries and territories in the world that is currently fighting the pandemic, have shown that the best way to win the war against the invisible enemy- the Coronavirus is to stay at home.
While that may feel strange, it’s important to note just how much of an impact self-isolation and social distancing can have in terms of flattening the curve.
PhD students Anna Szczepanek and Dominik Czernia have built a calculator that shows exactly how many lives you can personally save by staying at home.
These student believe this will show people just how much power is in their hands as they make steps to go against movement restrictions.
Anna is studying for a PhD in Mathematics from the Jagiellonian University, Poland, while Dominik doing his Physics PhD in Molecular Magnetism from the Institute of Nuclear Physics, Poland.
The pair are both contributors to a community of researchers and scientists called the Omni Calculator Project, where they make free Math and Physics resources for other young or senior students.
They have however put their expertise to good use for the general public, by producing a calculator that shows just how massive the consequences of our actions can be.
Anna told Metro.co.uk that;
Given the seriousness of the crisis, it’s always a huge responsibility to NOT do something that spreads more panic around people. I’m petrified to read scary news each day about the worsening situation.
She added that;
It was important for me and Dominik to send a ray of hope to people while explaining to them the benefits of following basic protocol. We used our backgrounds to our advantage and helped people find a motivation to stay at home – how to save themselves and hundreds around them.
When you’re on the calculator, you can change the variables based on how quickly the government in your country introduced lockdown measures.
As well as the amount of distancing or isolation you’re personally doing. From there, you can see the difference in coronavirus cases compared to if you’d not isolated at all, Metro reports.
For example, in the case of 100% isolation, you can save 399 infections and 14 lives.
The calculator is based on scientific research from the Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases.
Dominik and Anna used the same seven variables they included in their research, but made things more user-friendly and understandable. This way, the calculator can have an impact on the average person and the numbers can really hit home.
According to them, they’ve seen a large number of people using the calculator, and it was also shared on Twitter by famous epidemiologist Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding.
How many lives with you save? Calculator tool to find out impact of your decision to social-distance. Adjust values to experiment. Built by grad students in molecular physics and math (neither are epidemiologists – talent can come from anywhere!). #COVID19 https://t.co/uffEhrTUat pic.twitter.com/qULwcCYHAM
— Eric Feigl-Ding (@DrEricDing) March 26, 2020
