Could Contact-Tracing Apps Help With the Hantavirus? Not Really
Key takeaways
- Hey, wasn’t there supposed to be an app for that?
- Contact-tracing apps were a global effort starting in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.
- “There is no use of apps for this hantavirus outbreak,” Emily Gurley, an epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University, wrote in an email response to WIRED.
Why this matters: a development in AI with implications for how people work, create, and decide.
Photograph: Bill Clark/Getty Images Comment Loader Save Story Save this story Comment Loader Save Story Save this story After three people died on a cruise ship struck by a hantavirus, authorities are actively tracking down 29 people who had left the ship. They’re trying to trace the spread of the virus. It’s a long, arduous, global process to find and notify people who might be at risk of infection.
Hey, wasn’t there supposed to be an app for that?
Contact-tracing apps were a global effort starting in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic. Enabled by phone companies like Apple and Google, contact tracing was designed to use Bluetooth connections to detect when people had come in contact with someone who had or would later test positive for Covid and report as much. It didn’t do much to solve the spread of the pandemic, but tracking the virus became more effective at least. The same process wouldn’t go well for the hantavirus problem.