Disease Ecology Workshop: Rebecca Borchering

"Forecasting Seasonal Influenza: Challenges and Opportunities," Rebecca Borchering, postdoctoral researcher, Odum School of Ecology.

Abstract: A CDC study from 2018 estimated that approximately 8% of the United States population acquires symptomatic influenza each flu season. Accurate forecasts can assist with planning public health responses. There are a variety of forecasting methods in place, but they generally leave much to be desired in terms of predictive ability. In this workshop, Rebecca will discuss some of the challenges involved in generating these forecasts. She will then present a research plan that incorporates opportunities for addressing some of these challenges using partially observed Markov process models in a likelihood based inference framework.