Effectiveness of Social Distancing under Partial Compliance of Individuals

TL;DR

This paper investigates how partial compliance with social distancing policies impacts disease transmission, highlighting the importance of balanced, targeted policies to maximize public health benefits while minimizing social costs.

Contribution

It introduces a social distancing game model to analyze the effects of compliance variability on policy effectiveness and offers insights for designing balanced social distancing strategies.

Findings

Overly strict policies may reduce compliance and effectiveness.

Balanced policies improve health outcomes and social costs.

Segmented policies for immune individuals can reduce infections and costs.

Abstract

Social distancing reduces infectious disease transmission by limiting contact frequency and proximity within a community. However, compliance varies due to its impact on daily life. This paper explores the effects of compliance on social distancing effectiveness through a "social distancing game," where community members make decisions based on personal utility. We conducted numerical experiments to evaluate how different policy settings for social distancing affect disease transmission. Our findings suggest several key points for developing effective social distancing policies. Firstly, while generally effective, overly strict policies may lead to noncompliance and reduced effectiveness. Secondly, the public health benefits of social distancing need to be balanced against social costs, emphasizing policy efficiency. Lastly, for diseases with low reinfection risk, a segmented policy exempting immune individuals could lessen both infections and socioeconomic costs.