Analyzing the impact of a real-life outbreak simulator on pandemic mitigation: An epidemiological modeling study.

ABSTRACT: An app-based educational outbreak simulator, Operation Outbreak (OO), seeks to engage and educate participants to better respond to outbreaks. Here, we examine the utility of OO for understanding epidemiological dynamics. The OO app enables experience-based learning about outbreaks, spreading a virtual pathogen via Bluetooth among participating smartphones. Deployed at many colleges and in other settings, OO collects anonymized spatiotemporal data, including the time and duration of the contacts among participants of the simulation. We report the distribution, timing, duration, and connectedness of student social contacts at two university deployments and uncover cryptic transmission pathways through individuals' second-degree contacts. We then construct epidemiological models based on the

SUBMITTER: Specht I 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9403368 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature