The team revises the calculator every three months as they get new information about what constitutes risky behavior and different behaviors that can add to or mitigate risk (they recently added rapid testing, for example).Ĭalculators vary slightly. Their responses were aggregated to assign a score to each behavior a user reports (perhaps hugging an unvaccinated person). Lee used was created by a process named the Delphi Method, in which a group of 20 experts including infectious disease specialists and epidemiologists rated risky behavior - eating inside, for example - on a scale of 0 to 10.
Universities, governments and nonprofits have created different versions to help people assess their particular situations.Įach calculator is created differently. “This tool is about understanding the risk, about having a third party arbiter saying, ‘Maybe this isn’t a good idea.’”Ĭovid risk assessment calculators are a recent weapon in people’s quest to go about their normal lives while staying safe. “If there was a red flag, it would have at least given us pause,” he said. The calculator incorporated information about Covid rates and community spread in Toronto, where the gathering would take place, and then assessed his risk of being exposed to Covid-19 at the event. He plugged in additional information about where they would be meeting (indoors or outdoors) and what they would be doing (talking, eating, singing, hugging). This one was created by Canada’s National Institute on Ageing, and it asked him questions such as how many people would be at the gathering, how old everyone is and whether everyone had been fully vaccinated. So a week before Christmas he used a Covid risk calculator he found on the internet. “With all the different things added together, it felt like a relatively safe gamble to gather for the holidays,” he said. And they all took rapid tests leading up to the holiday. His children, ages 8 and 10, got their first vaccine shot. Lee, 43, a photo editor who lives in Toronto. His parents, who are more vulnerable because of their age, got the vaccine booster shot, as did Mr. They isolated themselves a few days before meeting. Before David Lee gathered with his parents for Christmas, he and his family took Covid-19 precautions.
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