Integrative Modeling and Analysis of the Interplay Between Epidemic and News Propagation Processes

Madhu Dhiman, Chen Peng, Veeraruna Kavitha, Quanyan Zhu

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has witnessed the role of online social networks (OSNs) in the spread of infectious diseases. The rise in severity of the epidemic augments the need for proper guidelines, but also promotes the propagation of fake news-items. The popularity of a news-item can reshape the public health behaviors and affect the epidemic processes. There is a clear inter-dependency between the epidemic process and the spreading of news-items. This work creates an integrative framework to understand the interplay. We first develop a population-dependent 'saturated branching process' to continually track the propagation of trending news-items on OSNs. A two-time scale dynamical system is obtained by integrating the news-propagation model with SIRS epidemic model, to analyze the holistic system. It is observed that a pattern of periodic infections emerges under a linear behavioral influence, which explains the waves of infection and reinfection that we have experienced in the pandemic. We use numerical experiments to corroborate the results and use Twitter and COVID-19 data-sets to recreate the historical infection curve using the integrative model.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication2023 American Control Conference, ACC 2023
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages2436-2443
Number of pages8
ISBN (Electronic)9798350328066
DOIs
StatePublished - 2023
Event2023 American Control Conference, ACC 2023 - San Diego, United States
Duration: May 31 2023Jun 2 2023

Publication series

NameProceedings of the American Control Conference
Volume2023-May
ISSN (Print)0743-1619

Conference

Conference2023 American Control Conference, ACC 2023
Country/TerritoryUnited States
CitySan Diego
Period5/31/236/2/23

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Electrical and Electronic Engineering

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