COVID-19 severity determinants inferred through ecological and epidemiological modeling.

ABSTRACT: Understanding variations in the severity of infectious diseases is essential for planning proper mitigation strategies. Determinants of COVID-19 clinical severity are commonly assessed by transverse or longitudinal studies of the fatality counts. However, the fatality counts depend both on disease clinical severity and transmissibility, as more infected also lead to more deaths. Instead, we use epidemiological modeling to propose a disease severity measure that accounts for the underlying disease dynamics. The measure corresponds to the ratio of population-averaged mortality and recovery rates (m/r), is independent of the disease transmission dynamics (i.e., the basic reproduction number), and has a direct mechanistic interpretation. We use this measure to assess demographic,

SUBMITTER: Markovic S 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8626896 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature