  We propose a novel slow-fast SIRS compartmental model with demography, by
coupling a slow disease spreading model and a fast information and
misinformation spreading model. Beside the classes of susceptible, infected and
recovered individuals of a common SIRS model, here we define three new classes
related to the information spreading model, e.g. unaware individuals,
misinformed individuals and individuals who are skeptical to disease-related
misinformation. Under our assumptions, the system evolves on two time scales.
We completely characterize its asymptotic behaviour with techniques of
Geometric Singular Perturbation Theory (GSPT). We exploit the time scale
separation to analyse two lower dimensional subsystem separately. First, we
focus on the analysis of the fast dynamics and we find three equilibrium point
which are feasible and stable under specific conditions. We perform a
theoretical bifurcation analysis of the fast system to understand the relations
between these three equilibria when varying specific parameters of the fast
system. Secondly, we focus on the evolution of the slow variables and we
identify three branches of the critical manifold, which are described by the
three equilibria of the fast system. We fully characterize the slow dynamics on
each branch. Moreover, we show how the inclusion of (mis)information spread may
negatively or positively affect the evolution of the epidemic, depending on
whether the slow dynamics evolves on the second branch of the critical
manifold, related to the skeptical-free equilibrium or on the third one,
related to misinformed-free equilibrium, respectively. We conclude with
numerical simulations which showcase our analytical results.
