Measles Outbreak Game Theory Eliminating the Equilibrium

Measles Outbreak
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September 24, 2019
Measles has been one of the most widespread and severe diseases that the world has ever faced. Before the development of a vaccine against the virus, “up to 4 million cases,” every year were reported across the United States (Belluck & Hassan, 2019). Fortunately, the subsequent development of a vaccine in the 1960s has led to the elimination of the disease throughout the country. Yet, recent news around the world would show that the once eliminated disease is back and poses a threat to the millions of people in the United States (Brodsky, 2019). 
In a close examination of this situation, one would see that this problem arises from a very complex situation which includes factors such as anti-vaccination campaigns, culture, and geographical isolation, among others (Otterman, 2019). While several methods have already been tested to reduce the effects of these factors, the author believes that using Game Theory would pose a more efficient solution for everyone. 
 
Game Theory
According to Kiss and Georgiu (2018), Game Theory “attempts to predict how an individual within a group will choose between different strategies when the outcome of the situation depends on how everyone else in the group behaves”. In other words, this shows a cost-benefit analysis in the part of an individual, that is heavily dependent towards the decision of others. Going back to the problem, it could be said that several individuals opt not to get vaccinated because they think that ‘abstaining’ is much more beneficial for them. For example, Student A might think that not getting vaccinated is safe because almost all of his classmates are vaccinated, thereby decreasing the possibility that he would contract the disease. Yet, it could be seen that if all think this way, the chances of contracting the disease becomes more likely. Ultimately, this kind of thinking usually leads to a deadlock, also known as the Nash Equilibrium, where a change in one’s strategy would be futile since others fail to do the same (Kiss & Georgiu, 2018). 
Eliminating the Equilibrium
Accordingly, one of the ways to elicit vaccination tolerance among people i...