Enlisting analytics and AI to contain the next pandemic

Much has been written about the coronavirus since it was first identified in China in January and much more will undoubtedly be written before the subsequently alarming spread abates and medical science comes up with an effective cure. And while news of the steady increase in reported numbers of people infected by and dying from COVID-19, as it is now known, has been dire, the good news is that we are getting much better at predicting and tracking the spread of infectious diseases. Three out of four infectious diseases originate in other species but their rapid spread in humans is facilitated by our ever-increasing mobility. International travel is now such that a disease that might once have stayed relatively contained can now spread across the world in mere weeks. We saw this with the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus in 2003 and we see it again today.