Research against Covid-19
I am currently Principal Investigator of the project “Testing, incentives, information: How to mobilize society’s resources against the pandemic” at CERGE-EI and Charles University, under the TACR GAMA framework. Other team members of the project are Pavel Kocourek, Ludmila Matysková, Daniel Münich and Jakub Steiner.
Among other things, we are working on the analysis and development of testing and quarantine algorithms, and on information management in connection with contact tracing. Here are some products of this collaboration in which I have participated (🇨🇿 for texts in Czech, 🇬🇧 for texts in English):
- September 30: Statement “Effective Restrictions Against Covid Could Pay For Themselves” (published as official CERGE-EI statement)
- Czech version 🇨🇿
- English version 🇬🇧
- In the media: Interview in Seznam Zprávy, Interview in Mlada Fronta Dnes
- September 14: Article in Lidové Noviny, arguing that the time for cheap countermeasures has passed, but that more inaction will only increase the eventual economic cost (with Daniel Münich)
- Czech version 🇨🇿 (paywall)
- English version 🇬🇧
- August 14: Comments on the Czech government’s draft national testing strategy (published in the name of the CERGE-EI AntiCovid initiative)
- July 3: Article on aktualně.cz evaluating the Czech contact tracing effort by analyzing publicly available data 🇨🇿 (with Vasily Korovkin and Jakub Steiner)
- June 5: Policy recommendations “Prevention will save us money: Recommendations for the coming weeks and months” (published in the name of the IDEA AntiCovid initiative)
- Czech version 🇨🇿
- English version 🇬🇧
- Reporting in Seznam Zprávy
- May 26: Article on aktualně.cz arguing that it is the pandemic more than the lockdown that depresses economic activity — and that investments in infection control are hence also what is necessary for economic recovery 🇨🇿 (with Štěpán Jurajda)
- May 12: Article on aktualně.cz calling for a national testing strategy that prioritizes contact tracing 🇨🇿 (with Jakub Steiner)
- April 27: Article on aktualně.cz on the error rates of antibody testing 🇨🇿 (with Jakub Kastl and Jakub Steiner)
- April 16: IDEA AntiCovid-19 study: “Using Bluetooth technology for COVID-19 contact tracing” (with Pavel Kocourek and Jakub Steiner)
- April 16: Article on aktualně.cz on the theory of representative antibody testing 🇨🇿
- April 6: Interview in iForum magazine on smart quarantine 🇬🇧
- April 5: Interviewed in RESPEKT magazine about incentive issues of smart quarantine 🇨🇿
- April 2: IDEA AntiCovid-19 study: “Collecting personal data for smart tracing: How to encourage (and not discourage) participation”
- Czech version 🇨🇿 (translated by Ludmila Matysková)
- English version 🇬🇧
- March 26: IDEA AntiCovid-19 study: “International testing policies for COVID-19 – An overview and an economic-statistical perspective” (with Pavel Kocourek, Jan Kulveit, Ludmila Matysková, Vladimír Novák and Jakub Steiner)