U.S. Department of Agriculture: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service
ORCID IDs
James D. Nichols https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7631-2890
Tiffany L. Bogich https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8143-5289
Emily Howerton https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0639-3728
Ottar N. Bjørnstad https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1158-3753
Rebecca K. Borchering https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4309-2913
Matthew Ferrari https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4440-8625
Murali Haran https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4440-8625
Christopher Jewell https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7902-2178
Kim M. Pepin https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9931-8312
William J. M. Probert https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3437-759X
Juliet R. C. Pulliam https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8081-536X
Michael C. Runge https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8081-536X
Cécile Viboud https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3243-4711
Katriona Shea https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7607-8248
Date of this Version
6-1-2021
Citation
PLOS Biology June 17, 2021
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3001307
Abstract
More than 1.6 million Servere Acute Respiratory Syndrome Cronovirus 2(SARS-COV-2)tests were administered daily in the United States at the peak of the epidemic, with a significant focus on individual treatment. Here, we show that objective-driven, strategic sampling designs and analyses can maximize information gain at the population level, which is necessary to increase situational awareness and predict, prepare for, and respond to a pandemic, while also continuing to inform individual treatment. By focusing on specific objectives such as individual treatment or disease prediction and control (e.g., via the collection of population- level statistics to inform lockdown measures or vaccine rollout) and drawing from the literature on capture-recapture methods to deal with nonrandom sampling and testing errors, we illustrate how public health objectives can be achieved even with limited test availability when testing programs are designed a priori to meet those objectives.
Included in
Natural Resources and Conservation Commons, Natural Resources Management and Policy Commons, Other Environmental Sciences Commons, Other Veterinary Medicine Commons, Population Biology Commons, Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecology Commons, Veterinary Infectious Diseases Commons, Veterinary Microbiology and Immunobiology Commons, Veterinary Preventive Medicine, Epidemiology, and Public Health Commons, Zoology Commons
Comments
The work is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 public domain dedication.