Around the globe, epidemiologists, statisticians, biologists, and health officials are grappling with these questions. Though engineering perspectives are uncommon in epidemiological modeling, we believe that in this case public officials could greatly benefit from one. Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic isn't an obvious or typical engineering problem. But in its basic behavior it is an unstable, open-loop system. Left alone, it grows exponentially. However, there's good news, too: Like many such systems, it can be stabilized effectively and efficiently by applying the principles of control theory, most notably the use of feedback.

中文翻译：

---

控制理论如何帮助我们控制 Covid-19

在全球范围内，流行病学家、统计学家、生物学家和卫生官员都在努力解决这些问题。虽然工程视角在流行病学建模中并不常见，但我们相信在这种情况下，公职人员可以从中受益匪浅。当然，COVID-19 大流行并不是一个明显或典型的工程问题。但就其基本行为而言，它是一个不稳定的开环系统。放任不管，它呈指数级增长。然而，也有好消息：像许多这样的系统一样，它可以通过应用控制理论的原理，尤其是使用反馈来有效地稳定下来。