575 research outputs found
Herd Immunity/Herd Infection: Cultural Artifacts of Marginalization and the Dynamics of AIDS
We examine conditions under which high prevalence of infectious disease can become endemic within a community, in effect constituting a state of 'herd infection' inverse to epidemiological herd immunity. For something like AIDS, under such circumstances, a single behavioral lapse or adverse accident will probably be a death sentence
Vaccination strategies against COVID-19 and the diffusion of anti-vaccination views
Miss-information is usually adjusted to fit distinct narratives and can
propagate rapidly through communities of interest, which work as echo chambers,
cause reinforcement and foster confirmation bias. False beliefs, once adopted,
are rarely corrected. Amidst the COVID-19 crisis, pandemic-deniers and people
who oppose wearing face masks or quarantines have already been a substantial
aspect of the development of the pandemic. With a potential vaccine for
COVID-19, different anti-vaccine narratives will be created and, likely,
adopted by large population groups, with critical consequences. Here, we
analyse epidemic spreading and optimal vaccination strategies, measured with
the average years of life lost, in two network topologies (scale-free and
small-world) assuming full adherence to vaccine administration. We consider the
spread of anti-vaccine views in the network, using a similar diffusion model as
the one used in epidemics, which are adopted based on a persuasiveness
parameter of anti-vaccine views. Results show that even if an anti-vaccine
narrative has a small persuasiveness, a large part of the population will be
rapidly exposed to them. Assuming that all individuals are equally likely to
adopt anti-vaccine views after being exposed, more central nodes in the network
are more exposed and therefore are more likely to adopt them. Comparing years
of life lost, anti-vaccine views could have a significant cost not only on
those who share them, since the core social benefits of a limited vaccination
strategy (reduction of susceptible hosts, network disruptions and slowing the
spread of the disease) are substantially shortened.Comment: 13 pages, 3 figure
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