Optimal Control of an SIR Model with Noncompliance as a Social Contagion

Abstract: We propose and study a compartmental model for epidemiology with human behavioral effects. Specifically, our model incorporates governmental prevention measures aimed at lowering the disease infection rate, but we split the population into those who comply with the measures and those who do not comply and therefore do not receive the reduction in infectivity. We then allow the attitude of noncompliance to spread as a social contagion parallel to the disease. We derive the reproductive ratio for our model and provide stability analysis for the disease-free equilibria. We then propose a control scenario wherein a policy-maker with access to control variables representing disease prevention mandates, treatment efforts, and educational campaigns aimed at encouraging compliance minimizes a cost functional incorporating several cost concerns. We characterize optimal controls via the Pontryagin optimality principle and present simulations which demonstrate the behavior of the control maps in several different parameter regimes.