Abstract

The new coronavirus has already claimed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people. Different countries are taking different measures in the fight against this new threat. Many people are staying at home. But is it worth it? That’s what we wanted to find out.

We created a computer model that helps us assess the effect of different measures against COVID-19. We checked for the impact on people’s health and the state of the healthcare systems in two countries: the UK and the US. We found that social distancing of the whole population, not just the elderly, would have the most beneficial effect. The combination of this measure with others would be even better.

[This article is pending review.]