Before revision: As the current COVID-19 outbreak shows, disease epidemic is a complex problem which must be tackled with the right public policy. One of the main tools of the policymakers is to control the contact rate among the population , commonly referred to as social distancing , in order to reduce the spread of the disease. We pose a mean-field game model of individuals each choosing a dynamic strategy of making contacts, given the trade-off of utility from contacts but also risk of infection from those contacts.
After revision: As the current COVID-19 pandemic has proven that proper control and prevention of infectious disease require creating and enforcing the appropriate public policies. One critical policy imposed by the policymakers is encouraging the population to practice social distancing (i.e. controlling the contact rate among the population). Here we pose a mean-field game model of individuals each choosing a dynamic strategy of making contacts, given the trade-off of utility from contacts but also risk of infection from those contacts.