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Organizers:
Abba Gumel (University of Maryland), Alex Safsten, Alice Oveson (both University of Maryland)
Description:
The recent COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the critical role human behavior plays in the dynamics and control of infectious diseases. The behavior changes with respect to the adherence or lack thereof to public health intervention and mitigation measures during this pandemic were triggered by factors such as the unprecedented burden of the disease, the epidemic of disease-related mis(dis)information, fear, polarization, peer influence, poor quality and inconsistency in public health messaging, etc. Specifically, epidemiological models that do not explicitly account for these behavioral changes were seen to generally fail to capture the correct trajectory and burden of the pandemic (thereby not being able to make realistic or accurate forecasts). This minisymposium brings together an interdisciplinary team of researchers to discuss and share ideas on the recent advances in designing, validating, and analyzing mathematical models that explicitly incorporate human behavior and socio-economic factors, and use these models to contribute to public health policy for controlling and mitigating the spread and burden of the disease. Some of the topics to be addressed include metrics of human behavior changes, the role of heterogeneity in compliance to public health intervention and mitigation measures, the influence of social networks, the impact of mis(dis)information, and risk perception.
Diversity Statement:
Our proposed minisymposium aims to provide a platform for voices across career stages, field of research, and institutional affiliations. The invited speakers include early-career researchers and established experts with experience in mathematics, biology, and social sciences, with particular attention to underrepresented groups in our discipline. This symposium reflects our belief that diverse perspectives strengthen the scientific community and lead to more impactful research outcomes.
Mallory Harris (University of Maryland)
"Risk (Mis)estimation and Population Heterogeneity Shape"
Jane Heffernan (York University)
"Modelling Positive and Negative Behaviour Change"
Claus Kadelka (Iowa State University)
"Adaptive human behavior and delays in information availability autonomously modulate epidemic waves"
Bryce Morsky (Florida State University)
"Social Dynamics, Information Spread, and Behavioral Responses in Epidemic Modeling"
Navid Ghaffarzadegan (Virginia Tech)
"Data-informed behavioral epidemic modeling"
Zitao He (University of Waterloo)
"Homophily and Early Warning Signals: Bridging Behaviour-Disease Dynamics and Social Media Trends with Deep Learning"
Alice Oveson (University of Maryland)
"Exploring the Feedback Loop Between Behavior and Public Health"
Binod Pant (Northeastern University)
"Integrating human behavior data into epidemiological models"
