Disease Modelling: Incorporating Behaviour

Infectious diseases are subject to much media coverage. When an individual considers vaccination and/or social behaviour change, i.e., physical distancing, their decisions are based on information accessed through mass and social media. Ultimately, their decisions affect no not only themselves, but also the population at large. Mathematical models can be used to quantify the individual- and population-level effects of such decisions, including scales of information quality. They can also be used to optimize public health policy messaging so that misinformation effects can be minimized.