Herd Immunity: Difference between revisions
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== Herd Immunity == | == Herd Immunity == | ||
Revision as of 17:41, 8 September 2016
Herd Immunity
Work in progress! Details below could change!
Introduction
Also known as the Billiard Ball Game, and various alternatives! It's a fun and pretty Java application that shows a load of coloured balls bouncing around a space. At the beginning they will either be green (susceptible), or blue (vaccinated). Then a couple will turn red (infected), and they will each try to infect the next R0 different balls they bounce into. If those victims are susceptible, then they will turn red and start trying to do their own infecting. When R0 attempts to infect have been made, they becoming immune (grey). The vaccination percentage, and R0 are the things you can choose; R0 is a whole number between 3 and 8, and vaccination between 0 and 100% in 10% intervals.
After each run, the number of infections made is recorded and plotted on a graph; there is one graph for each value of R0 with vaccination coverage on the x-axis, and number of hosts on the y-axis. After a few samples have been connected, a best fit curve will be plotted, showing the basic herd immunity principle: vaccinating for example 30% of the population causes a reduction of much more than 30% in the final number of cases.
The game can be used as a standalone application, or with various additional dependencies, it can be controlled through a tablet, which has been our favourite and most engaging way of using the game in public events.
Running on a Standalone Machine
Download the ZIP file here, which containing Java source and compiled classes. I compiled with Java 8u91; install Java from Oracle if you need to. Unzip it to any folder you like. (Don't just run it from inside the ZIP - it won't work!). If you need an unzipper, try 7-Zip. Then click on runthis.bat in the root folder. Being Java code, it should also be fine on Linux and Mac.
Usage History
Here are the events where we've used this game.
Previous Events
- March 2015 - HPRU Open Day.
- July 2014 - Imperial Y10 Summer School Workshop - Harriet Mills and Rafal Mostowy.
- June 2013 - MRC Centenary, Science Museum
Credits and Thanks
The Herd Immunity Java code, Android code and Web support was written by Wes Hinsley. The idea, and a lot of later ideas to make it much more exciting, was from Neil Ferguson. Many thanks also to all who demonstrated this in exciting ways at the Centenary event.