To Combat COVID-19, Tech and Government Must Join Forces
Originally published on the Cantina Insights blog.
As of May 22, the COVID-19 death toll in the United States has passed 95,000. The response to the coronavirus pandemic has upended the global economy, ravaged the lives of billions globally, and forced entire industries to adapt.
Contact tracing offers hope for relief from the inevitable onslaught of COVID-19. By tracing everyone who’s been in contact with an infected individual, it is possible for those who may have been exposed to the virus to isolate in order to prevent more infections. There is some excitement in the news about its success in South Korea, Germany, and China.
Historically, contact tracing was used to combat sexually transmitted diseases and tuberculosis. Diseases best suited for contact tracing typically:
- Are infectious and spread through a known method
- Have novel characteristics that require additional studying
- Are exceptionally harmful
Manual contact tracing, where individuals are interviewed about potential contacts, is time-consuming and expensive. However, it’s one of the most effective methods for mitigating the spread of an infectious, dangerous disease with novel characteristics like…
