A Prisoner’s Dilemma of Covid-19 Restrictions
The US is constantly in debate about how to proceed with COVID-19 regulations. As states begin to strongly vary in their legislation regarding stay at home orders, vaccine and mask mandates, and gathering restrictions, the line between right and wrong can become blurry. While increasing or maintaining various mandates is necessary to maintain the spread of COVID-19 and save many lives, these regulations are detrimental to the community, as well. Many would end up being laid off, small businesses would shut down, and people’s recreational activities would be hindered. The arguments for both sides are plentiful, and while they center around moral issues, the debate, like many others, can be simplified into a game theory problem.
The Stanford Daily article I read compared the situation to a Prisoner’s Dilemma. While each state would have the repercussions of hospitalizations and potential deaths from lifting regulations, it is financially in the interest of each state to do so and regrow their respective economies. The decisions of the governor’s of California and Arizona affect each other as neighboring states because an outbreak in one would cause cases to rise in the other because of people moving around. Therefore, it is most beneficial for each state to lift their mandates while the other keeps them, upping the economy while limiting COVID-19 exposure from the neighboring one which would be under stricter lockdown.
Although it is impossible to quantify the payoffs without personal opinion in a matrix of this situation, I have made a depiction below of one way the Nash Equilibrium could be found. Both states would end up lifting restrictions, while they may have been better off maintaining them or working together to create a moderate plan. This is just one of the countless examples of the Prisoner’s Dilemma in real life and exemplifies the consequences of actions regarding COVID-19 regulations that may be less obvious.
Source: https://www.stanforddaily.com/2020/06/21/a-covid-19-prisoners-dilemma/