# Screening for an Infectious Disease as a Problem in Stochastic Control

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2011.00635 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.00635/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 1 Nov 2020.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [A resource-constrained stochastic scheduling algorithm for homeless street outreach and gleaning edible food](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.10638/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

There has been much recent interest in screening populations for an infectious disease. Here, we present a stochastic-control model, wherein the optimum screening policy is provably difficult to find, but wherein Thompson sampling has provably optimal performance guarantees in the form of Bayesian regret. Thompson sampling seems applicable especially to diseases, for which we do not understand the dynamics well, such as to the super-spreading COVID-19.