Nature’s third progress report, coming at the end of the pandemic’s first year, highlights key findings from epidemiology — from sounding the early alarm to following the impact of new variants.
Epidemiology is essential to the fight against any disease. The study of how diseases spread, and why, has loomed large in the struggle to understand, contain and respond to COVID-19. Analyses of data on infections and deaths, and projections from studies that model the virus’s spread, have driven policy decisions all over the world. Many of these, such as locking down countries, imposing quarantines, and mandating social distancing and mask-wearing, are now commonplace.
This editorial — the third instalment in Nature’s series of pandemic progress reports — explores some of the key research developments that have helped to illuminate the nature of the infection and the scale of the pandemic.
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