Project description
Human behaviour and infection spread modeled
Before the advent of vaccines, many died from diseases such as measles and polio that vaccination has now eradicated. Public concerns around life-saving vaccination have become alarmingly widespread. Vaccine hesitancy – the delay in acceptance or refusal of vaccines – is on the rise in Europe. The EU-funded IMMUNE project will carry out an interdisciplinary modelling framework to explore the dynamics of human behaviour on infections’ spread. Through the lens of social sciences, the project will integrate risk perceptions on diseases and vaccines, (mis)information campaigns, social peers influence and digitalisation. By combining quantitative approaches and research methodologies, the project will analyse the interplay between health communications, risk perception and vaccine uptake.
Objective
Aim: The IMMUNE project will provide a ground-breaking interdisciplinary modelling framework that will explore the dynamics of human behavior on infections’ spread, through the lens of social sciences, integrating risk perceptions on diseases and vaccines, (mis)information campaigns, social peers influence and digitalisation.
Background: Vaccines represent one of the most significant, cost-effective and safe public health interventions ever introduced. However, vaccine hesitancy has become alarmingly widespread over the last two decades, especially in Europe where vaccine refusal has steadily increased and serious outbreaks of vaccine preventable diseases have re-emerged.
Method: A combination of quantitative approaches and research methodologies will be used to extend the current state-of-the-art epidemiological models. Digital records on individuals’ use of the Internet and social media will be analysed to study the interplay between health communications, risk perception and vaccine uptake in different contexts. Experimental and field surveys will be conducted in three selected EU countries to generate data on individuals’ social interactions, both physical and virtual. Agent-Based and mechanistic compartmental models will be developed to unravel the complex relationship between the determinants of human behaviour, vaccination decision and infection spread.
Impact: The IMMUNE project provides a step forward in the understanding of the relationship between human behaviour and the demand for vaccines, and how these two aspects are intertwined with the way infections spread in our communities. The proposed activities will integrate different perspectives and strategies in a novel and comprehensive framework where human contagion is at the centre of a multidimensional approach that stands at the intersection of epidemiology, demography, sociology, social psychology and public health.
Fields of science
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
ERC-COG - Consolidator GrantHost institution
20136 Milano
Italy