Overcoming Vaccine Hesitancy by Multiplex Social Network Targeting

Abstract

Understanding the impact of social factors on disease prevention and control is one of the key questions in behavioral epidemiology. The interactions of disease spreading and human health behavior such as vaccine uptake give rise to rich dueling dynamics of biological and social contagions. In light of this, it remains largely an open problem for optimal network targeting in order to harness the power of social contagion for behavior and attitude changes. Here we address this question explicitly in a multiplex network setting. Individuals are situated on two layers of networks. On the disease transmission network layer, they are exposed to infection risks. In the meantime, their opinions and vaccine uptake behavior are driven by the social discourse of their peer influence network layer. While the disease transmits through direct close contacts, vaccine views and uptake behaviors spread interpersonally within a long-range potentially virtual network. Our comprehensive simulation results demonstrate that network-based targeting with initial seeds of pro-vaccine supporters significantly influences the ultimate adoption rates of vaccination and thus the extent of the epidemic outbreak.