“IT IS POSSIBLE TO STOP THE EPIDEMIC ” That’s the message splashed atop a website built by a University of Oxford team this week to share new research on the spread of the novel coronavirus Below that hopeful statement comes a big caveat: To stop the virus’ spread, health officials need to find and isolate the contacts of infected people—lots of them—and fast Such contact tracing is a mainstay of infectious disease control But the Oxford team is one of several now advocating for a new approach: tapping into cellphone location data to track the spread of infection and warn people who may have been exposed
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Kelly Servick (2020) studied this question.