Fig 8. Mean reproduction number as a function of time for the weak and strong immune population distributions described in Figs 3 and 4, respectively.

Means were calculated over 10,000 sample simulations, and are plotted as points with lines interpolated between them alongside the reproduction number defined for the two-cohort ODE SEIR model in Eq 4. Note that the ABM simulations were for a four-cohort structure, accounting for some differences between the two traces. We see that the effect of a global increase in the immune profile of the population is a suppression of (a) the initial spread of the disease, seen through a reduction in the reproduction number, and (b) of recurrent infection waves, seen through the elimination of the second interval of time where R > 1.