Sudden transitions in coupled opinion and epidemic dynamics with vaccination

Abstract

This work consists of an epidemic model with vaccination coupled with an opinion dynamics. Our objective was to study how disease risk perception can influence opinions about vaccination and therefore the spreading of the disease. Differently from previous works we have considered continuous opinions. The epidemic spreading is governed by a SIS-like model with an extra vaccinated state. In our model individuals vaccinate with a probability proportional to their opinions. The opinions change due to peer influence in pairwise interactions. The epidemic feedback to the opinion dynamics acts as an external field increasing the vaccination probability. We performed Monte Carlo simulations in fully-connected populations. Interestingly we observed the emergence of a first-order phase transition, besides the usual active-absorbing phase transition presented in the SIS model. Our simulations also show that with a certain combination of parameters, an increment in the initial fraction of the population that is pro-vaccine has a twofold effect: it can lead to smaller epidemic outbreaks in the short term, but it also contributes to the survival of the chain of infections in the long term. Our results also suggest that it is possible that more effective vaccines can decrease the long-term vaccine coverage. This is a counterintuitive outcome, but it is in line with empirical observations that vaccines can become a victim of their own success.

25 pages, 11 figures, to appear in JSTAT

References in corpus (8)

• Statistical physics of social dynamics
• Statistical physics of vaccination
• A generalized model of social and biological contagion
• Risk perception in epidemic modeling
• Identification of Patient Zero in Static and Temporal Networks - Robustness and Limitations
• Interacting opinion and disease dynamics in multiplex networks: discontinuous phase transition and non-monotonic consensus times
• Epidemic spreading in multiplex networks influenced by opinion exchanges on vaccination
• Mutually cooperative epidemics on power-law networks

Cited by in corpus (14)

• Epidemic spreading with awareness and different timescales in multiplex networks
• Three-state opinion dynamics in modular networks
• Antivax movement and epidemic spreading in the era of social networks: Nonmonotonic effects, bistability and network segregation
• Hysteresis and disorder-induced order in continuous kinetic-like opinion dynamics in complex networks
• Phase transition in the Galam's majority-rule model with information-mediated independence
• Imperfect bifurcations in opinion dynamics under external fields
• Effect of overlap on spreading dynamics on multiplex networks
• Spontaneous symmetry breaking and discontinuous phase transition for spreading dynamics in multiplex networks
• Double transition in kinetic exchange opinion models with activation dynamics
• A simple mechanism leading to first-order phase transitions in a model of tax evasion
• Optimal rewiring in coupled opinion and epidemic dynamics with vaccination
• Tricritical behavior in epidemic dynamics with vaccination
• What is the potential for a second peak in the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 in emerging and developing economies? Insights from a SIRASD model considering the informal economy
• The propensity for disobedience: Rule-breaking, compliance and social phase transitions