April 1, 2020

expert reaction to paper looking at mobile apps for contact tracing in epidemics without quarantine

A paper, published in the journal Science, reports on mobile apps for contact tracing in epidemics without quarantine.

Prof Keith Neal, Emeritus Professor of the Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases, University of Nottingham, said:

“This is a theoretical modelling paper.  It does not provide any direct evidence as such that mobile apps could control epidemics without the need for quarantines.

“But it is important in getting the UK to debate what has already been done elsewhere.

“Apps are already in use globally and are probably contributing to management of the epidemic.  One concern is that geotracking is a key part in the methodology.  If too few people sign up it can only have minimal benefit.  Uptake would need to be high and too many people may complain about the big brother aspect of the methods and opt out.  If used it could always be deleted afterwards from the phone when the epidemic is over.  It is well worth trying and apps are already available.”

‘Quantifying SARS-CoV-2 transmission suggests epidemic control with digital contact tracing’ by Luca Ferretti et al. was published in Science on Tuesday 31 March 2020.

DOI: 10.1126/science.abb6936 (2020)

All our previous output on this subject can be seen at this weblink:

www.sciencemediacentre.org/tag/covid-19/

Declared interests

None received.