Since the COVID 19 pandemic, epidemiology and virology terms have entered our everyday language, but what do they really mean? What’s the reproductive number of a virus and what can it tells us about disease dynamics? And why have we been following an arms race between rabbits in Australia and a virus for over 70 years now? Join Levannia and Lindsay as they dive into disease dynamics. Come learn the math behind the numbers we’ve heard all too often during the COVID-19 pandemic. We’ll explain how Rnaught is calculated and how we factor in transmissibility, contact rate, and more. For a real world example NOT related to the COVID-19 pandemic, we share the century long story of the arms race between rabbits in Australia and bio contral with the myxoma virus.

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Sound Editing/Original Music by Julian Bertino Sound info@julianbertinosound.com

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Tags: Rnaught, COVID-19, virus, public health, global health, disease dynamics, pandemic, statistics, STEM, women in science, women in STEM, medicine