Posted: 4/3/2020
Contact tracing is a very effective and very well established method to combat an epidemic. However, during the current Covid-19 pandemic, too many countries appear to have irresponsibly downplayed its use. Instead, medieval Draconian, one size fits all, top down, countrywide measures like business shutdowns and curfews/quarantine were imposed. Expediency is no excuse! The ends do not justify the means! The most extreme and totally exaggerated panic and alarmism about a relative harmless virus superseded almost all voices of reason!
The common narrative for not using contact tracing is that it is too slow given the high infectiousness of this pandemic and lack of resources or that it was too late to use contact tracing as the pandemic had advanced too far too fast.
However, given the available technologies like smartphones and artificial intelligence a contact tracing protocol like the following would likely have been very successful in containing the pandemic without resorting to shutting down an economy:
- Confirmed victims of Covid-19 would have been, as is typical, to identify their contacts over the past several days or so
- These confirmed victims would then be asked to consent to use their smartphones to identify other potential contacts
- If a confirmed victim refuses to cooperate and if there is reason to believe the victim is a spreader, a court order could be sought
Sources (S):
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