In March, the United States became significantly affected by the COVID-19 outbreak in virtually every aspect of daily life. Aside from disrupting the routines of students, small business owners, and professionals throughout the U.S., the pandemic has proved to be detrimental to the U.S. healthcare system, which is struggling under the weight of the increasing number of COVID-19 cases per day.
The impacts of the pandemic on the U.S. economy (as well as the global economy), have been drastic, and are projected to worsen, as economists speculate a recession on the horizon. As a small but indicative example, potato farmers in Idaho are dumping extra potatoes due to the lack of demand, and gas prices are at least a dollar lower than usual in most American cities.
As the pandemic continues to affect the nation in unprecedented ways, our team of researchers has been motivated to research the effects of contact tracing on the spread of the disease, with the goal of identifying the optimal levels of contact tracing to reduce the spread of the disease. We believe this project will enable us to employ our interests in economic research and computer science to gain a bit of control and understanding about the unfolding crisis on a national and global scale, and above all, prompt individuals to consider the dramatic effects of social distancing.
More specifically, we plan to use our knowledge of economic theory and computer science throughout this project to analyze the effects of contact tracing on the spread of COVID-19. We intend to utilize the techniques we've gained throughout the course of the semester to generate visualizations to simulate contact tracing, as well as discuss and analyze the consequences of different types of contact tracing.
Ultimately, our goal is to provide an end product that is impactful and thought-provoking. We hope that our efforts can effectively demonstrate the crucial importance of realizing and maintaining a certain degree of social responsibility during any national crisis.