Development of the second version of the Global Prediction System for Epidemiological Pandemic

Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a severe global public health emergency that has caused a major crisis in the safety of human life, health, the global economy, and social order. Moreover, COVID-19 poses significant challenges to healthcare systems worldwide. The prediction and early warning of infectious diseases on a global scale are the premise and basis for countries to jointly fight epidemics. However, because of the complexity of epidemics, predicting infectious diseases on a global scale faces significant challenges. In this study, we developed the second version of the Global Prediction System for Epidemiological Pandemic (GPEP-2), which combines statistical methods with a modified epidemiological model. The GPEP-2 introduces various parameterization schemes for both the impact of natural factors (seasonal variations in weather and environmental impacts) and human social behaviors (government control and isolation, personnel gathered, indoor propagation, virus mutation, and vaccination). The GPEP-2 successfully predicted the COVID-19 pandemic in >180 countries with an average accuracy rate of 82.7%. We also provided prediction and decision-making bases for several regional-scale COVID-19 pandemic outbreaks in China, with an average accuracy rate of 89.3%. These results showed that both anthropogenic and natural factors can affect virus spread and that control measures in the early stages of an epidemic can effectively control the spread. The predicted results could serve as a reference for public health planning and policymaking.