A crucial aspect of this is better software tools for building large scale simulations, so I would say this is a large opportunity for someone who wants to work in software engineering.
Even just working as a research engineer in an existing academic group building epidemiological models would be impactful in my opinion. The role of research engineer within academia is quite neglected because it tends to pay less than equivalent industry jobs.
I just wrote a relevant forum post on how simulation models / Agent-based models could be highly impactful for pandemic preparedness: https://forum.effectivealtruism.org/posts/2hTDF62hfHAPpJDvk/simulation-models-could-help-prepare-for-the-next-pandemic
A crucial aspect of this is better software tools for building large scale simulations, so I would say this is a large opportunity for someone who wants to work in software engineering.
Even just working as a research engineer in an existing academic group building epidemiological models would be impactful in my opinion. The role of research engineer within academia is quite neglected because it tends to pay less than equivalent industry jobs.