Core Vaccination Strategies (6.4-6.6)
Q1: A one-time, pre-emptive campaign vaccinating a fraction p of the initial susceptible population before an epidemic begins.
Prophylactic (Pre-Exposure) Vaccination
Q1: Models vaccination targeting specific age groups with age-dependent mixing.
Q2: “Vaccine uptake depends on disease prevalence through function ν(I)”. Here ν(I) means ;
So ν(I) is just a function that tells us how vaccination rate changes depending on how many people are infected.
Q1: Age-Structured (Targeted) Vaccination
Q2: Behavior-Dependent Vaccination
This behavioral response assumes people reduce risky contacts in direct proportion to the number of infected individuals. When cases double, behavior change doubles.
Linear Response
Difference between Component-Based Modeling VS Explicit Behavioral Compartments
You do not create new compartments.
Instead, you modify the transmission rate (β → β(I)) based on how people behave.
You create new compartments to represent behavioral groups.
Q1: Susceptibles are vaccinated at a constant per-capita rate (rate per individual ) ν (i.e. each individual in the susceptible class has a probability ν per unit time of being vaccinated), moving directly to immune class.
Q2: At regular intervals t= nT, a fixed proportion θ of susceptibles is instantly vaccinated.
Q1: Continuous (Routine) Vaccination
Q2: Pulse periodic vaccination
Effective infectious disease control requires integrated strategies that combine pharmaceutical interventions (such as vaccination) with non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) like social distancing and mask-wearing.
TRUE OF FALSE?
Give your reason
While vaccination provides direct biological protection by stimulating immune responses, NPIs reduce transmission opportunities by modifying human behavior and interactions.
This response rises quickly at first but then levels off, representing the idea that people can only change behavior so much (limited capacity). Which functional form is this?
Saturating response
Complexity Level:
Which is true?
A1 - Component-Based Models are more complex than Behavioral Compartment Models
A2 - Behavioral Compartment Models are more complex than Component Based Models
A2
Q1: This vaccination strategy is given before exposure to build immunity in advance.
Q2: A country vaccinates every newborn at age 2 months, year after year.
Q3: An Ebola team vaccinates contacts after a case is detected. Which strategy is this?
Q1: prophylactic vaccination
Q2: continuous (routine) vaccination
Q3: reactive or ring vaccination
Q1: Adaptive behavior in epidemics refers to changes in what?
Q2: The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted what key idea about human behavior?
Q1: Changes in human behavior in response to disease risk
Q2: That behavior changes β, altering transmission.
This response predicts that people reduce risky behavior rapidly at first when cases start rising, but the rate of change slows down as cases get higher.
Which behavioral function is being described?
exponential decay response
For the text below, which category of behavioral addition can it be placed.
A1: You can directly see behavior changes (like people switching from cautious → careless), because it’s built into the model.
A2: You can clearly see how behavior affects infection either by reducing contacts or increasing protection.
A1: Behavioral Compartment Models
A2: Component-Based Models
Q1: This vaccine model reduces the probability of infection but does not fully protect anyone.
Q2: For this vaccine, some people get perfect protection while others get none.
Q3: A vaccine provides 90% protection, but immunity drops 10% per month. What concept is this?
Q1: Leaky vaccine
Q2: All-or-nothing vaccine
Q3: Waning immunity.
Q1: Why can behavior cause infections to decline even when no formal policy changes occur
Q2: Explain why behavior can create multiple epidemic waves.
Q1: Because individuals reduce exposure, effectively lowering λ.
Q2: Behavior improves when cases rise, then relaxes when cases drop—a feedback loop.
This behavioral response shows little reaction at low cases, then a sudden sharp increase in behavior change near a threshold, and finally saturates at maximum behavior change.
Which functional form models this tipping-point behavior?
Sigmoid Type Response
A1: You only need simple behavior data, like average contacts or mask-wearing levels.
A2: You need more detailed data, like how many people become cautious over time, how many switch to risky behavior, etc.
A1: Component-Based Models
A2: Behavioral Compartment Models
Q: Why is a two-dose vaccination model important for diseases like COVID-19?
A: Because the first dose provides partial protection, and full immunity requires a booster, affecting transmission dynamics.
Q1: Why can ignoring adaptive behavior lead to incorrect predictions of epidemic size?
Q2: One key lesson from COVID-19 was that human behavior can change transmission even without policy. True or false?
Q3: Why can behavior-driven reductions in contact occur faster than policy-driven ones?
Q1: Because models assume fixed β, but real β drops as people change behavior, reducing spread.
Q2: True
Q3: Individuals respond immediately to perceived risk (news, social media, local cases).
This functional form captures a bounded response with an initial acceleration, often used when behavior change accelerates early but then slows before reaching saturation, creating an “S-like but asymmetric” curve. Which behavioral function is this?
Rational Droop-type response
A1: You can directly test interventions by adjusting the parts of behavior they affect (e.g., reduce contacts by 20%).
A2: You test interventions by changing how people move between behavior groups, like making people more cautious faster.
A1: Component-Based Models
A2: Behavioral Compartment Models: