Disease kicked to the curb by game theory
The best for the individual may not always be the best for the group?! Say whaaaaatt!! I know this idea may seem novel, but really it’s not too far off from common sense. What gets interesting is the balance, or as some say, equilibrium, between the individual and the group. When can a decision be made that is the best for the individual and the group? And how can we as a society use this question and it’s answer to make the world a better place. Now that’s an interesting concept.
This question can be investigated using game theory. Game theory, in a basic idea, discusses how a strategy is chosen by person(s) A when person(s) B could pick any of their strategies / choices and vice versa. The complex part of this as my article states, is it is hard to find an optimal strategy for person A, if you aren’t aware of the other choices being made.
My article suggest that using game theory can help prevent disease outbreaks. It questions why people don’t adhere to travel warnings that pertain to disease outbreaks, what is the best form of containment (i.e. grounding a plane with an outbreak of flu – would this be correct or not, given human behavior or putting a travel ban in place that stops aid workers from helping), and choosing to vaccinate or not vaccinate. One example that was particularly interesting, was the vaccination example. It showed that people choose not to vaccinate under the assumption that everyone else in their community probably does vaccinate. Thus, the assumed risks (whatever they may be) of vaccination are not worth the risk of infection because contact with the infection should be 0. The problem be becomes when more than one person thinks like this, so then no one or fewer people in the community vaccinate, thus the disease is more present and it is a lose-lose for the individual and the group. This is a good example of the complexity of game theory.
What game theory allows is the ability to predict best possible outcomes. The article claims that if we can use game theory to help us understand why individuals act a certain way that is in their own best interest, then public authorities can pick strategies that try to mitigate the possibility of outbreaks.
https://phys.org/news/2018-09-game-theory-disease-outbreaks.html