What do we know about immunity, the epidemiology, testing strategies, and data collection in the context of the coronavirus pandemic? On what basis are governments making decisions, and how much uncertainty is there in current epidemiological models? We answer these questions and more in the first episode of our new podcast series Science, Policy & Pandemics. In this week's episode, our host Rob Doubleday, sits down with infectious disease epidemiologist Professor James Wood and mathematician Professor Julia Gog to bring you an overview of infectious disease modeling and to answer some questions about the covid19 pandemic.  

This series on science, policy and pandemics is brought to you by the Centre for Science and Policy at the University of Cambridge, in partnership with  Cambridge Infectious Diseases and the Cambridge Immunology Network.  

Our guests this week:  

Professor Julia Gog is a British mathematician, David N. Moore Fellow and Director of Studies in Mathematics at Queens' College, Cambridge and Professor of mathematical biology in the University of Cambridge Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics. She is also a member of the Cambridge Immunology Network and the Cambridge Infectious Diseases Interdisciplinary Research Centre. She is a member of SPI-M.

Professor James Wood is Head of Department of Veterinary Medicine and  Alborada Professor of Equine and Farm Animal Science. He is a veterinary epidemiologist who specializes in emerging and zoonotic infectious diseases, with a focus on bat transmitted viruses in sub-Saharan Africa and bovine tuberculosis.

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This series is hosted by CSaP Executive Director Dr Rob Doubleday, and is edited and produced by CSaP Communications Coordinator Kate McNeil. If you have feedback about this episode, or questions you’d like us to address in a future week, please email enquiries@csap.cam.ac.uk .