Epidemic prevalence information on social networks can mediate emergent collective outcomes in voluntary vaccine schemes.

ABSTRACT: The effectiveness of a mass vaccination program can engender its own undoing if individuals choose to not get vaccinated believing that they are already protected by herd immunity. This would appear to be the optimal decision for an individual, based on a strategic appraisal of her costs and benefits, even though she would be vulnerable during subsequent outbreaks if the majority of the population argues in this manner. We investigate how voluntary vaccination can nevertheless emerge in a social network of rational agents, who make informed decisions whether to be vaccinated, integrated with a model of epidemic dynamics. The information available to each agent includes the prevalence of the disease in their local network neighborhood and/or globally in the population, as well as the fracti

SUBMITTER: Sharma A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6532839 | biostudies-literature | 2019 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature