Smartphones could help us track the coronavirus – but at what cost? | John Naughton
It's wise to be wary of the government adopting intrusive apps that monitor the effectiveness of public health measures
As we confront the pandemic, we're flying blind, like pilots in 1930s aeroplanes flying through fog. That, at any rate, is what I take away from reading John Ioannidis, a Stanford professor who is an expert in epidemiology, population health, biomedical data science and statistics. Covid-19, he writes, in a startling article, "has been called a once-in-a-century pandemic. But it may also be a once-in-a-century evidence fiasco. At a time when everyone needs better information, from disease modellers and governments to people quarantined or just social distancing, we lack reliable evidence on how many people have been infected with Sars-CoV-2 [the official name for the virus] or who continue to become infected".
Draconian countermeasures are being implemented all over the place. If the pandemic dissipates - for whatever reason - such extreme short-term measures may be bearable. But what if the thing just keeps going? And how can policymakers know they're doing more good than harm?
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