Finding and explaining optimal screening strategies with limited tests during the COVID-19 epidemics Trouver et expliquer des stratégies de dépistage optimales avec un nombre de tests limité pendant l'épidémie de COVID-19 En Fr

Résumé En

The COVID-19 epidemics has now lasted for 2 years. A vaccine has been found, but other complementary measures are still required, in particular testing, tracing contacts, isolating infected individuals, and respecting sanitary measures (physical distancing, masks). However these measures are not always well accepted and many fake news circulate about the virus or the vaccine. We believe that explaining the mechanisms behind the epidemics and the reasons for the sanitary measures is key to protect the general population from disinformation. To this end, we have developed a simple agent-based epidemic simulator that includes various screening strategies. We show that it can be used to compare the efficiency of various targeting strategies, starting date, and number of daily tests. We also ran an optimisation algorithm that proves that the best strategies consist in testing widely and early. Our simulator is already available to play online, to raise awareness in the general population.