  During an epidemic, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, policy-makers are faced
with the decision of implementing effective, yet socioeconomically costly
intervention strategies, such as school and workplace closure, physical
distancing, etc. In this study, we propose a rigorous definition of
epidemiological strategies. In addition, we develop a scheme for comparing
certain epidemiological strategies, with the goal of providing policy-makers
with a tool for their systematic comparison. Then, we put the suggested scheme
to the test by employing an age-based epidemiological compartment model
introduced in Bitsouni et al. (2024), coupled with data from the literature, in
order to compare the effectiveness of age-based and horizontal interventions.
In general, our findings suggest that these two are comparable, mainly at a low
or medium level of intensity.
