Social distancing calculator demonstrates how many lives could be saved

Around one-third of the world’s global population is believed to be under lockdown currently as healthcare professionals recommend social distancing and self-isolation as the best measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

Despite explicit instructions to adhere to regulations, reports continue to cite people are choosing to disregard health and safety rules.

Polish PhD students Anna Szczepanek and Dominik Czernia decided to try to help use their technical knowledge to show people how their actions could save lives. 

The pair built a calculator that shows exactly how many lives a person could personally save by staying at home during the coronavirus pandemic. 

The students hope this will convince people just how much individual power a person has - when it comes to protecting themselves and others.

To make the calculator, the pair used data from previous simulations by other teams to model the outcome of 1,000 outbreak scenarios using seven parameters.

The seven variables were divided into three key groups for the purpose of the public facing calculator: virus outbreak, actions taken by respective  governments, and our own decisions (the level of isolation).The idea was to make the calculator as user friendly as possible to ensure it is widely accessible.

When using the calculator, you can change the variables based on how quickly the government in your country introduced lockdown measures, as well as the amount of distancing or isolation you’re personally following.

It will then generate a graph to demonstrate the impact of your self-isolation and social distancing choices. 

For example, in the case of 100% isolation, the calculator determines you could prevent 399 infections and save 14 lives.

The calculator is based on scientific research from the Centre for the Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases.

Up to now, the team say they’ve seen a large number of people using the calculator and was also shared on Twitter by famous epidemiologist Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding.

Curious about how your personal decisions are affecting the coronavirus curve? Try the social distancing calculator here.