Economics concerns the study of incentives in human decision-making. Human actions can play an important role in pandemic prevention and control. For example, zoonotic spillovers have been linked to activities such as deforestation and the resulting increase in the human-wildlife interface. More downstream, the recent “epi-econ” approach employs techniques from dynamic optimization in order to optimally explore various tradeoffs. These models can provide us with additional tools to guide policymakers during a pandemic.