Emory Center for Infectious Disease Modeling & Analytics and Training Hub

Last year, we introduced the ENGAGED study, led by our social contacts team in partnership with KPGA. A lot of progress has been made, and we are excited to share a sneak peek of the preliminary results! Here we share a contact matrix, showing the rate of contacts for participants, separated by age group.

Interested in seeing the most up to date contact matrix and more preliminary data like number of group contact settings, group contact size, participant demographics, and reported symptoms? Check out the ENGAGED dashboard on CIDMATH.org and make sure to follow us for future updates on ENGAGED and other projects!

Thank you Dr. Seema Lakdawala for an engaging presentation today about H5N1 on dairy farms for the CIDMATH/EAVE seminar series!

Scholarship applications for 2026 are now open! You can learn more and apply on the SISMID website https://sismid.sph.emory.edu/index.html

Rollins School of Public Health

CIDMATH Director Ben Lopman shares his experience with rotavirus as a parent and professional, underscoring the impact of changes to the U.S. childhood vaccination schedule:

My son had rotavirus before he could get the vaccine. Ending universal rotavirus vaccination is a tragedy A rotavirus expert’s baby caught the disease before vaccines were available. He’s seen firsthand why the vaccine, recently downgraded on the vaccination schedule, is so important.

"I’d reassure [parents] that removing vaccines from the schedule doesn’t mean they’ve become unsafe or ineffective—there’s no new evidence suggesting any safety or efficacy concerns," says Dr. Ben Lopman, Director of CIDMATH. "This shift reflects a political decision that runs counter to the views of vaccine scientists and public health experts."

This week, acting Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Jim O'Neill ordered the CDC to adopt a new vaccine schedule that no longer universally recommends vaccines for hepatitis A, hepatitis B, rotavirus, meningococcal disease, influenza, and COVID-19 for all children. Lopman provides expert insights on the impact of this change.

🔗 Read the full article on the Rollins School of Public Health News Center:

Expert Opinion: What Changes to the Childhood Immunization Schedule Mean for Americans’ Health What do changes to the childhood vaccine schedule mean for American kids and the greater public? Infectious disease epidemiologist, Ben Lopman, shares his insights.

🔔 Check out new paper “Characterizing social behavior relevant for infectious disease transmission in four low- and middle-income countries, 2021-2023” from CIDMATH investigators Kristin Nelson, Samuel Jenness, and Ben Lopman, staff Machi Shiiba, doctoral students Sara Kim and Pragati Prasad, and collaborators

The full paper is available open access in Nature Communications (🔗 in bio!)

📣 Paper Spotlight: “Deep neural networks for endemic measles dynamics: Comparative analysis and integration with mechanistic models” authored by Wyatt Madden, Wei Jin, Ben Lopman, Andreas Züfle, Benjamin Dalziel, C. Jessica E. Metcalf, Bryan T. Grenfell, and Max S.Y. Lau and published in PLOS Computational Biology

Check out the image for highlights and find the full paper at the 🔗in bio!

📄 A recently published paper “Target trial emulation without matching: a more efficient approach for evaluating vaccine effectiveness using observational data” authored by Emily Wu, Elizabeth Rogawski McQuade, Mats Stensrud, Razieh Navi, & David Benkeser explores a new method to study real world vaccine effectiveness.

🔎 Read the full paper for free on arXiv -> 🔗 in bio!

Putting the “TH” in CIDMATH: Training Hub programs!

At CIDMATH, innovation is not only about developing new methods, techniques, and platforms in modeling & analytics, but ensuring public health professionals are equipped with the skills needed to tackle infectious disease challenges.

Swipe to learn more about CIDMATH’s training initiatives!

AI tools are popping up everywhere with a variety of applications - but how can they be used to improve public health? CIDMATH investigator Dr. Max Lau is pioneering machine learning approaches to forecast disease trends and inform public health planning. Swipe to learn more!

Who do you share germs with, and who might be sharing germs with you? The answer is in your social contact patterns 👀

Led by Dr. Kristin Nelson and Dr. Sharia Ahmed, in partnership with and Georgia CTSA, CIDMATH is conducting two studies to gain new insights into social contact patterns to help prevent the spread of

Swipe to learn more about social contact patterns and the ENGAGED & HealthVu studies!

is a highly contagious and preventable respiratory infection that commonly affects children. So far in 2025, there have been more than double the cases reported in 2024, and three deaths. Measles deaths in the U.S. are not normal – these are the first since 2015.

Two doses of the MMR vaccine are 97% effective at preventing measles. U.S. coverage among kindergartners is below the 95% coverage target and on the decline. Decreasing vaccination coverage increases the risk of vaccine-preventable disease outbreaks like this one.

This post reflects confirmed case numbers as of 4/4/25 and reported hospitalizations and deaths as of 4/8/25. Outbreak numbers change rapidly. For the latest, you can check cdc.gov/measles for updates every Friday, and the Texas DSHS for updates on Tuesdays and Fridays.