I’ve previously written about manual contact tracing as well as digital contact tracing using exposure notification apps as methods that we can use to help curb the COVID-19 pandemic. There are advantages and disadvantages of different kinds of exposure notification apps, some of which I’ve discussed. However, an article in Annals of Internal Medicine provides a more comprehensive overview of the characteristics of Bluetooth-based, GPS-based, and WiFi-based exposure notification apps. The following table summarizes the key points:
As the authors note, contact tracing is one of many pieces of the COVID-19 puzzle. It supplements but does not replace the need for hygiene (e.g., covering coughs/sneezes, washing hands), social distancing, effective treatments, widespread testing, and eventually safe and effective vaccines. That being said, uptake of exposure notification apps is currently very low as you can see from the “Uptake” row in the table above. How much better do you think we can do nationwide?
No comments:
Post a Comment