BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Talks.cam//talks.cam.ac.uk//
X-WR-CALNAME:Talks.cam
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:The Management of Population Immunity - Flavio Toxvaerd (Faculty o
 f Economics)
DTSTART:20160218T114500Z
DTEND:20160218T130000Z
UID:TALK63325@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Stephen Kissler
DESCRIPTION:This paper considers a susceptible-infected-recovered type mod
 el of an infectious disease\, such as swine flu\, in which costly treatmen
 t or vaccination confers immunity on recovered individuals. Once recovered
 \, individuals become immune and thus indirectly protect the remaining sus
 ceptibles\, who benefit from a measure of herd immunity. It is shown that 
 under decentralized decision making\, infected individuals ignore the exte
 rnalities that their decisions have on susceptible individuals and thus se
 ek treatment or vaccination only if it is privately optimal to do so. In c
 ontrast\, a benevolent central planner who does take this externality into
  account in choosing the level of aggregate treatment or vaccination\, may
  choose to either eradicate the disease or to retard its eventual dissemin
 ation into the population. Optimal treatment is shown to involve intervent
 ion at early stages of the epidemic. In contrast\, optimal vaccination def
 ers intervention to later stages of the epidemic. Thus\, while treatment a
 nd vaccination have superficial similarities\, their effects and desirabil
 ity at different stages of the epidemic are radically different.
LOCATION:Meeting room 15\, Centre for Mathematical Sciences
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR