Abstract
In this study, a hesitant fuzzy AHP method is presented to help decision makers (DMs), especially policymakers, governors, and physicians, evaluate the importance of intervention strategy alternatives applied by various countries for the COVID-19 pandemic. In this research, a hesitant fuzzy multicriteria decision making (MCDM) method, hesitant fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (hesitant F-AHP), is implemented to make pairwise comparison of COVID-19 country-level intervention strategies applied by various countries and determine relative importance scores. An illustrative study is presented where fifteen intervention strategies applied by various countries in the world during the COVID-19 pandemic are evaluated by seven physicians (a professor of infectious diseases and clinical microbiology, an infectious disease physician, a clinical microbiology physician, two internal medicine physicians, an anesthesiology and reanimation physician, and a family physician) in Turkey who act as DMs in the process.
Highlights
As was realized from the previous 2009 AH1N1 pandemic and the recent COVID-19 pandemic, countries need efficient mitigation planning to prevent mass infection and fatalities
E basic reproduction number (R0) is the key factor that shows the strength of the epidemic; it is, without any interventions, the mean number of secondary cases generated by a single infected case in a population with no immunity to infection [1]
Various intervention strategies applied by countries in the world during the COVID-19 pandemic are evaluated by seven physicians with different expertise, acting as consultants and decision makers (DMs)
Summary
As was realized from the previous 2009 AH1N1 pandemic and the recent COVID-19 pandemic, countries need efficient mitigation planning to prevent mass infection and fatalities. If followed properly, might reduce the R0 below 1 and control the spread of COVID-19. Countries need a systematic approach to determine which intervention strategies to apply during the COVID-19 pandemic and future potential epidemiological waves and pandemics. Intervention strategies applied by countries during the COVID-19 pandemic are evaluated in terms of importance with the help of an MCDM method, hesitant F-AHP. Cheng et al [4] presented an extensive dataset of government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the interventions that are evaluated in this study are taken from their research. Internal border restrictions reducing the ability to move freely (transportation) within a country. Government policies which reduce the ability to move freely within a country. In Peru as of March 15 2020, “officials are restricting the movement of people across provinces”
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