A team led by scientist Gabriele Doblhammer examined the socio-economic factors in the spread of the coronavirus in different regions during the first two waves in Rostock.
These include education, income, health, mobility, age and gender. “Our results show that the first wave of Covid-19 began as a disease in wealthier rural areas in southern Germany and only spread to poorer urban and rural areas during the course of the first wave,” says the professor, who holds the Chair of Sociology and Demography of the University of Rostock, on Thursday. Overall, the researchers expect a similar pandemic to occur in the fall.
According to the results of the study, the spread of the pandemic was initially determined by parts of the population with high mobility – for example by vacations. And it then shifted to the so-called systemically important and vulnerable groups such as nursing staff and older people.
According to Daniel Kreft, who was involved in the research as a so-called postdoc, the team transferred established algorithms from machine learning to social science. Their results could also be used in the future to predict the spread of corona. − dpa
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