Author: David Levine

Andrea Galeotti and Paolo Surico and I felt the need to learn some tools to process this information and to understand and rationalise current health and economic policies. We created a narrative to highlight different trade-offs which are part of: a) every health policy that attempts to flatten the contagion curve of Covid-19, and b) every economic policy that attempts to flatten the ‘recession curve’ caused by Covid-19. We have developed, to share with you, A user guide of Covid-19. It consists of a short introduction and four mini-lectures (each with slides and a video):

• A user guide of Covid-19: introduction. [Video] 

• A user guide of Covid-19: part I: gathering facts. [Video, Slides] 

Reporting the facts that are available to us all, in a way that is concise, precise and accessible to a large audience.

• A user guide of Covid-19: part II: epidemiology for dummies. [Video, Slides]

Explaining, in simple but precise terms, the epidemiology models that are guiding governmental health policies. Discussing trade-offs in health policies that implement different degrees of social distancing.

• A user guide of Covid-19: part III: economics for dummies. [Video, Slides]

Explaining, in simple but precise terms, the economic mechanisms behind the new economic crisis due to Covid-19.

• A user guide of Covid-19: part IV: policy options. [Video, Slides]

Discussing health and economic policy options in view of the current situation.

A file containing a comprehensive set of teaching slides is here: Lecture of Covid-19. This is a rapidly evolving situation, so we are updating the lecture slides (almost) daily.