%0 Journal Article
%T SIR+ models: accounting for interaction-dependent disease susceptibility in the planning of public health interventions.
%A Martignoni MM
%A Raulo A
%A Linkovski O
%A Kolodny O
%J Sci Rep
%V 14
%N 1
%D 2024 06 5
%M 38839831
%F 4.996
%R 10.1038/s41598-024-63008-9
%X Avoiding physical contact is regarded as one of the safest and most advisable strategies to follow to reduce pathogen spread. The flip side of this approach is that a lack of social interactions may negatively affect other dimensions of health, like induction of immunosuppressive anxiety and depression or preventing interactions of importance with a diversity of microbes, which may be necessary to train our immune system or to maintain its normal levels of activity. These may in turn negatively affect a population's susceptibility to infection and the incidence of severe disease. We suggest that future pandemic modelling may benefit from relying on 'SIR+ models': epidemiological models extended to account for the benefits of social interactions that affect immune resilience. We develop an SIR+ model and discuss which specific interventions may be more effective in balancing the trade-off between minimizing pathogen spread and maximizing other interaction-dependent health benefits. Our SIR+ model reflects the idea that health is not just the mere absence of disease, but rather a state of physical, mental and social well-being that can also be dependent on the same social connections that allow pathogen spread, and the modelling of public health interventions for future pandemics should account for this multidimensionality.