Spearheaded by Kumar Murty of the Fields Institute and Jianhong Wu of York University, and with the active participation of the Atlantic Association for Research in the Mathematical Sciences (AARMS), the Centre de Recherches Mathématiques (CRM) and the Pacific Institute for Mathematical Sciences (PIMS), the resulting Mathematical Modelling of COVID-19 Task Force amassed a network of almost 60 leading infectious disease modellers, clinicians, mathematicians and epidemiologists to contribute to the national battle against COVID-19.

A motivating driver behind the Task Force was the belief that by coming together, sharing knowledge and combining expertise, we could throw far more scientific firepower at this new virus. That belief proved correct: During its early stages, the Task Force built what was essentially a roadmap of how mathematics could assess this all-encompassing public health risk. 

With resources from CIHR, and participation from the NRC, we then created a forum to disseminate knowledge and exchange mathematical technologies. The Task Force’s work proved so impactful, members were often consulted by government at both municipal, provincial and federal levels to help shape decisions around public health measures.

On February 9, 2022, on the second anniversary of its establishment, Springer released the first of a three-volume series of the Task Force’s greatest hits. Mathematics of Public Health, published in record time, is a curation of real-time research seminars and papers delivered by the group over its two-year run. The book was edited by Dr. Murty and Dr. Wu, with monumental efforts put in by Research Manager, Dr. Sarah Nayani, and Springer editor, Dahlia Fisch.

A primary aim of this series is knowledge sharing; to make its content accessible so that researchers share the core methods that may be applied elsewhere. It’s also designed to be a master class in mathematical modelling. Anyone interested in modelling infectious disease or public health events should have this book in their collection.

During last week’s CIHR COVID-19 Task Force Showcase, to celebrate the book launch and to wrap up the work of the Task Force as it transitions into the larger Mathematics for Public Health (MfPH) effort, participants were treated to highlights from the book’s 16 chapters.

Invited speakers, such as Jane Heffernan, Taha Jaffer, Yanni Xiao and Michael Li, among many others, delivered brief presentations of their work, answered questions about the research, and were able to reflect on the strange experience of scientifically “building the plane while flying it.”

It was striking to map this research retrospective to the moments of the pandemic we’ve so recently lived through – and, unfortunately, are still living through. You can see the real-time evolution of science as it unfolded, with the paradox of feeling like it happened a century ago instead of yesterday.

Themes from the event included: 

•Meta-analysis with available data, data collection and machine learning techniques;

•Predicting global and local disease spread and transmission risk assessments using hierarchical modelling principles;

•Agent-based modelling and simulating virus transmission; and

•Network modelling and simulating virus transmission and assessment of countermeasures using network-based modelling.

Below are the recorded proceedings from the Showcase.

To order a copy of Mathematics of Public Health, please visit the Springer website.

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