Public health models that do not take economic epidemiological principles into account often make the mistaken assumption that the prevalence elasticity of demand is essentially infinite. In the SIR...

Public health models that do not take economic epidemiological principles into account often make the mistaken assumption that the prevalence elasticity of demand is essentially infinite. In the SIR model of infectious disease, a high value of β for a disease indicates that people are very fearful of catching it and protect themselves more.