The CoMo Consortium is delighted to have been awarded funding by the University’s COVID-19 Research Response Fund, enabling the group to continue to support country members, predominantly low- and middle-income countries, who require modelling support for non-pharmaceutical interventions such as social distancing, mask wearing and handwashing, while they wait for vaccines and to support these countries with modelling the implementation of vaccine programmes.
CoMo uses an innovative participatory approach, leveraging experts from the University of Oxford and other collaborating partners to provide capacity building and support to in-country modellers.
Lisa J. White, Professor of Modelling and Epidemiology at the University of Oxford and Director of the CoMo Consortium, explains:
“Our approach in the CoMo Consortium represents a new more equitable way to conduct pandemic modelling. Here, experts within the country teams take the leading role in modelling the pandemic working closely with national policymakers. Researchers at Oxford provide technical and consultative support as needed. Modelling work is carried out within the health and policy context of each country leading to rapid uptake of results via continuous communication with the decisionmakers.”
This approach has enabled in-country teams to assist policymakers in making evidence-based decisions to contain the spread of COVID-19, supported by epidemiological and economic models adapted to each country’s context. In addition to this the group has published a series of papers which are now published.
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