How does social distancing affect the reach of an epidemic in social networks? We present Monte Carlo simulation results of a susceptible–infected–removed with social distancing model. The key feature of the model is that individuals are limited in the number of acquaintances that they can interact with, thereby constraining disease transmission to an infectious subnetwork of the original social network. While increased social distancing typically reduces the spread of an infectious disease, the magnitude varies greatly depending on the topology of the network, indicating the need for policies that are network dependent. Our results also reveal the importance of coordinating policies at the ‘global’ level. In particular, the public health benefits from social distancing to a group (e.g. a country) may be completely undone if that group maintains connections with outside groups that are not following suit.

社交距离如何影响流行病在社交网络中的传播范围？我们展示了使用社交距离模型去除易感-感染-移除的蒙特卡罗模拟结果。该模型的关键特征是个人可以与之互动的熟人数量受到限制，从而将疾病传播限制在传染性子网络中原来的社交网络。虽然增加社交距离通常会减少传染病的传播，但其幅度因网络拓扑而异，这表明需要依赖于网络的政策。我们的结果还揭示了在“全球”层面协调政策的重要性。特别是，如果该群体与未效仿的外部群体保持联系，那么与一个群体（例如一个国家）保持社交距离所带来的公共卫生益处可能会完全失效。