Hi, Reddit, I am Gerardo Chowell, PhD, a professor of mathematical epidemiology at the School of Public Health at Georgia State University. I am currently researching the transmission dynamics of Middle East respiratory syndrome, also known as MERS, and the factors that can make an infectious disease outbreak more likely to spread. As many of you know, South Korea recently suffered an outbreak of MERS that was the largest to occur outside Saudi Arabia. The disease spread through hospitals and killed 36 people, infected more than 180 and led to the government imposing quarantines on nearly 17,000 people to get the outbreak under control. I conducted similar research during the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. *Thank you so much for your questions. I enjoyed chatting with everybody! *