A research team in Abu Dhabi is using social media data to develop a new model that could help governments deal with future epidemics.
The data will be used to analyse the impact of non-medical preventive measures, like lockdowns and remote work protocols, in limiting the spread of diseases.
“The traditional method for epidemiological modelling uses historical medical data to predict future epidemic spread trajectory,” Farida Al Hosani, director of the communicable diseases department at the Abu Dhabi Public Health Centre, said in a statement.
She said this method “lacks the empirical components necessary to link the predicted infections and mortality rates with the implementation of precautionary measures taken by the authorities to limit the disease spread.”
Another researcher from the UAE University, Hamad Al Jassmi, said that high mobility in times of epidemics could lead to faster transmission rates.
“We relied on big data for the mobility of social media platform users provided to us by Facebook, which includes anonymised mobility data for users of WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram apps without sensitive information related to the user identities,” he explained.
Abu Dhabi is not the first to do this method, as international body UNICEF also used big mobility data to help Indonesian communities control the spread of Covid-19.
UNICEF Indonesia teamed up with social media platform Cuebiq and Facebook to provide them with “anonymised, aggregated mobile phone data,” according to a report on its website.
The data included Facebook users’ movements to estimate the total population that stayed at home, as well as information on people’s night- and daytime locations.
The Abu Dhabi researchers, from the emirate’s UAE University, Department of Health, and Public Health Centre, did not specify the social media data they intend to use, but researcher Umair Hasan said the new model could particularly help authorities “adjust lockdown policies without the need for extensive computational demands.”
Hasan explained that this methodology is the first of its kind to link epidemic spread with real-time changes in population mobility, adding “future work will rely on post-vaccination data” to improve the new model, so that “relaxation measures can be implemented towards the end of the pandemic and safely execute a return to normalcy.”
The research team responsible for the new epidemic control model was also responsible for the “mathematical modelling of COVID-19 spread dynamics in UAE” project, which won the Emirates Innovate Award in 2021 under the category “best innovation in digital leadership.”
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