The IMMUNE project (ERC Consolidator Grant to @melegaro) will analyse the determinants and mechanisms of vaccine hesitancy and, more generally, compliance to public health measures with respect to infectious disease and will expand the epidemiological modelling framework to incorporate human behaviour on the analysis of infections’ spread. We will consider risk perceptions on diseases and vaccines, (mis)information campaigns, social peers influence and the effects of digitalisation.

A combination of quantitative approaches and research methodologies will be used to expand the current state-of-the-art epidemiological
models. Digital records on individuals’ use of the Internet and social media will be analysed to study the interplay between health communications, risk perception and vaccine uptake in different contexts. Online experiments and field surveys will be conducted to generate data on individuals’ social interactions, both physical and virtual. Agent-Based and mechanistic compartmental models will be developed to unravel the complex relationship between the determinants of human behaviour, vaccination decision and infection spread.