Before revision:  In fact, it can be shown that the reproduction number is highly variable. Considering its expected value thus leads to biased or loose results in the reported predictive scenarios, especially as these are tailored to a given country or region. The goal of this paper is the examination of the impact of the reproductive number R's variability on important output metrics, and the percolation of this variability in projected scenarios so as to provide uncertainty quantification.
After revision:  Yet, due to the exponential nature of epidemics growth, this simplification can lead to inaccurate predictions and/or risk evaluation, thus begging the question: how large is the impact of this simplification on predictions and risk estimates? How can this variability be percolated in the projections for the pandemics so as to provide uncertainty quantification.