Canadians would offer personal information to help trace COVID-19 contacts, Trudeau says

OTTAWA-Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he believes Canadians would voluntarily provide personal information via mobile or digital tracking applications to allow the government to trace contacts of people infected with coronavirus.

"I think many Canadians would be open to idea of providing some information that would normally not be provided simply because of this pandemic, but where do we draw the lines? That is something that has not been established," Trudeau said Wednesday at his daily briefing.

Trudeau has repeatedly underlined the importance of public health authorities being able to track the contacts of anyone who tests positive for the virus. He said the federal government is looking at various technological options, although he specified none.

"Even in emergency we'll be careful about what we're going to ask Canadians. It might be possible to allow this to be voluntary," he said in French. "But that's part of our current reflection in terms of reopening the economy step by step."

Contact tracing is vital in a pandemic where science shows that asymptomatic and presymptomatic people may transmit the virus, where there is no vaccine, no effective treatment, and no clear evidence that people who have been infected once and recovered develop any kind of lasting immunity.

"Getting the balance right will be extremely important," Trudeau said.

"We've seen different countries around the world with different approaches to personal privacy try different things. We have a number of proposals and companies working on different models that might be applicable to Canada but as we move forward on taking decisions, we're going to keep in mind that Canadians put a very high value on their privacy on their data security.

"We need to make sure we respect that even in a time of emergency measures and significant difficulty and crisis."

Dr. Peter Phillips, an infectious disease specialist at the University of British Columbia, says Canada should look to places like Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore, where aggressive contact tracing efforts made the difference in how they were able to control the first wave of the epidemic.

Phillips said successful jurisdictions have used digital apps, short text messaging, GPS information, anonymized credit card information along with widespread testing, and effective quarantine and isolation services with supervision for support and for compliance.

He said Canada needs to do more on all those fronts.

"That's one of the reasons why we haven't been able to contain it on the first wave of the epidemic, even though it's been of different severity in different provinces," he said.

"That is where I think we need to be before we are going to be confident that pulling back the social-distancing measures will not result in a second wave."

The use of digital technology has been proven to help compliance in health care, he said.

Phillips pointed to text-messaging services that encourage people to take HIV and tuberculosis medications.

While digital aids in contact tracing have been adopted in places like Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore, Hong Kong and New Zealand, "countries in Europe and North America have not jumped on this, on what has worked.

"These are not things that are impossible in Canada," he said.

"If it's done properly it can be done anonymously. Are there possibilities they can be abused? Sure, but Canadians can make a choice," Phillips said. "You can end up with some initiatives that raise questions about privacy and civil liberties, or you can have the scenario like Italy or New York.

"You can flatten the curve but if you don't have the public health components in place " then you're probably going to see second and third waves. And the playbook's been written by these few countries. Why would we not adopt it?"

Phillips said Wednesday that he is concerned that the federal government and public health "have been slow to express interest in pursuing digital technology as a means to enhancing the contact tracing and quarantine initiative."

Still he believes Trudeau is likely right that people would consent to more digital tracking, especially if it was not imposed upon them as a first step.

Tonda MacCharles is an Ottawa-based reporter covering federal politics for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @tondamacc