Heterogeneity: The art of averaging
Heterogeneity: The art of averaging
This chapter first considers the case when individuals differ only in infectivity, which means that one can in a sense, simply work with the “average” individual. It then exposes a crucial, but hitherto hidden, assumption, namely that the contact process is uniform. If, in contrast, the population is represented by a spatial lattice or a social network, with contact restricted to sets of neighbors (partners, acquaintances, etc.), then all neighbors of a certain individual will experience the actual infectious pressure exercised by this particular individual, and not some kind of average. The chapter goes on to illustrate the key influence of dependence in experienced infectivity.
Keywords: infectious disease, infectivity, susceptibility, dependence
Princeton Scholarship Online requires a subscription or purchase to access the full text of books within the service. Public users can however freely search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter.
Please, subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you think you should have access to this title, please contact your librarian.
To troubleshoot, please check our FAQs , and if you can't find the answer there, please contact us.
