About the Authors

Alexander Kirpich

Affiliations Department of Biostatistics, College of Public Health and Health Professions and College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America, Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Thomas A. Weppelmann

Affiliations Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America, Department of Environmental and Global Health, College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Yang Yang

Affiliations Department of Biostatistics, College of Public Health and Health Professions and College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America, Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Afsar Ali

Affiliations Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America, Department of Environmental and Global Health, College of Public Health and Health Professions, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

J. Glenn Morris Jr.

Affiliations Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America, Department of Medicine, College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Ira M. Longini

ilongini@ufl.edu

Affiliations Department of Biostatistics, College of Public Health and Health Professions and College of Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America, Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of America

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: AK TAW YY AA JGM IML. Performed the experiments: AK TAW YY AA JGM IML. Analyzed the data: AK TAW YY AA JGM IML. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: AK TAW YY AA JGM IML. Wrote the paper: AK TAW YY AA JGM IML. Worked on the literature review, performed the data analysis and corresponding estimation, outputs and graphs: AK TAW. Participated in discussions and interpretation of the results: AK TAW YY AA JGM IML.