Our guest for this episode is Daniel Coombs, a professor in the Department of Mathematics at UBC and an Associate of the Peter Wall Institute (PWIAS). Coombs is also an expert on multi-scale infectious disease models and a member of the Mathematical Biology Group and the Institute of Applied Mathematics at UBC.

In this episode, Ways of Knowing host Kalina Christoff and Daniel Coombs discuss the mathematical modelling of the new coronavirus and how it can be used to improve our response to the current outbreak. The discussion focuses on three recent mathematical models with relevance to COVID-19 public policy:

• The Imperial College model that led the UK Government to drastically change its response to the COVID-19 outbreak
• A model by researchers at Oxford, emphasizing the importance of antibody testing to determine the extent of already existing COVID-19 immunity in the population
• A model by researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, demonstrating that minimizing infections and minimizing deaths are not the same thing

This episode was produced remotely, with Coombs and Christoff recording from their respective homes.