MIT researchers have been studying how US international airports would affect a rapidly spreading disease epidemic to maybe one day help in dealing with a real situation. A number of relevant factors have been used in the simulation including how many planes come in and out of airports, their intersecting times, the patterns of passengers coming through, and the geographic variety of the people in the airports. In the study published in the open-access PLoS ONE, the top three “super-spreader” airports have been identified as New York’s JFK, Los Angeles International, and Honolulu International.
Video is below:
Abstract in PLoS ONE: A Metric of Influential Spreading during Contagion Dynamics through the Air Transportation Network
MIT press release: New model of disease contagion ranks U.S. airports in terms of their spreading influence
(hat tip: Scope)
