About the Authors

Qi Deng

Roles Conceptualization, Data curation, Formal analysis, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Resources, Software, Supervision, Validation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Mathematics and Statistics, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Woldegebriel Assefa Woldegerima

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

wassefaw@yorku.ca (WAW); wujh@yorku.ca (JW)

Affiliation Department of Mathematics and Statistics, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Wenjing Zhang

Roles Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas, United States of America

Ali Asgary

Roles Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Global South Artificial Intelligence for Pandemic and Epidemic Preparedness and Response Network, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Jude Dzevela Kong

Roles Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Artificial Intelligence and Mathematical Modelling Lab, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Sarah Flicker

Roles Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department Environmental Studies, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Nicholas H. Ogden

Roles Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation National Microbiology Laboratory, Public Health Agency of Canada, Saint-Hyacinthe, Québec, Canada

James Orbinski

Roles Supervision, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation The Dahdaleh Institute for Global Health Research, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Nicola Luigi Bragazzi

Roles Supervision, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

Affiliation Department of Food and Drugs, University of Parma, Parma, Italy

Jianhong Wu

Roles Conceptualization, Formal analysis, Funding acquisition, Investigation, Methodology, Project administration, Supervision, Validation, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing

wassefaw@yorku.ca (WAW); wujh@yorku.ca (JW)

Affiliation Department of Mathematics and Statistics, York University, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.