USF epidemiologist’s Covid-tracking tool receives funding from Florida Blue
November 13, 2020 - Florida Blue has given $100,000 to the USF Foundation to support the SEIRcast COVID-19 Forecasting & Planning Portal, a system developed by USF College of Public Health professor Edwin Michael that provides daily unique, locally applicable epidemic forecasts. SEIRcast has the ability to forecast the pandemic at a county level by taking into consideration the impacts of local transmission conditions, social behavior and decisions and can generate forecasts of outbreaks by adjusting each day to the current transmission and social conditions applicable to a county. The modeling tool also provides predictions for investigating a wide array of “what-if” policy scenarios such as stay-at-home orders, mask mandates or reopenings that might cause cases to fall or surge. A hospital resource planning interface allows health care providers to monitor whether the pandemic will overwhelm resources before the crisis hits.