"There’s a lot that we don’t know, but we’re trying to get that information and see if it can inform policy as we move ahead," Lauzardo said.
“By the time someone arrives at the hospital and is severely ill, you can assume they were infected two to three weeks ago,” said Natalie Dean, a biostatistician at the University of Florida.
"We're trying to figure out who is ill or who has had significant exposure, and then keep them from getting around other folks," Haley said.
“It’s probably going to just continue to rise exponentially for a couple of weeks,” said Ira Longini, co-director of the Center for Statistics and Quantitative Infectious Diseases at the Emerging Pathogens Institute of the University of Florida.
Longini's suggestion that US deaths could peak in less than a month will have two possible impacts.
A mathematical modeling group including investigators from the UF Center for Statistics and Quantitative Infections Diseases worked with the World Health Organization and Florida Department of Health on modeling the pandemic globally.
With their studies all but shut down during the COVID-19 outbreak, UF/IFAS researchers in Balm are turning their attention to helping fight the coronavirus.
UF scientist says drastic shifts in behavior appear to be having an effect in the pandemic, though they say the death toll will continue to mount and caution against drawing any sweeping conclusions.
