Kinetic models for epidemic dynamics in the presence of opinion polarization

TL;DR

This paper develops a kinetic mathematical model to analyze how opinion polarization influences epidemic spread, linking social dynamics with disease transmission to better inform containment strategies.

Contribution

It introduces a novel kinetic framework connecting opinion polarization and epidemic dynamics, enabling analysis of collective behavior effects on disease spread.

Findings

Model captures the impact of opinion polarization on epidemic trends

Numerical results confirm the model's ability to reproduce real-world phenomena

The approach links microscopic opinion formation to macroscopic epidemic outcomes

Abstract

Understanding the impact of collective social phenomena in epidemic dynamics is a crucial task to effectively contain the disease spread. In this work we build a mathematical description for assessing the interplay between opinion polarization and the evolution of a disease. The proposed kinetic approach describes the evolution of aggregate quantities characterizing the agents belonging to epidemiologically relevant states, and will show that the spread of the disease is closely related to consensus dynamics distribution in which opinion polarization may emerge. In the present modelling framework, microscopic consensus formation dynamics can be linked to macroscopic epidemic trends to trigger the collective adherence to protective measures. We conduct numerical investigations which confirm the ability of the model to describe different phenomena related to the spread of an epidemic.