Covid-19 / Public Health / Health
The Science Behind Contact Tracing, and the Limitations to US Implementation
Privacy concerns and the role of government could impede a key facet of US pandemic tracing
In any given day, people interact with one another countless times. Even seemingly non-interactions — sitting next to a stranger on the bus, for example — count as contact when it comes to tracing the spread of an outbreak. It is this fact that has public officials concerned with the rapid proliferation of Covid-19. But, for epidemiologists trained to chart the course of a disease, mapping an individual’s many contacts with other people — what is known as contact tracing — is a powerful tool in tracing the origin of a disease as well as implementing appropriate social isolation guidelines.
Disease tracing as an exact science dates back to the mid-1800’s when an outbreak of cholera ripped through the SoHo district of London. A local physician, John Snow, began to objectively map the location of new cases of cholera. By interviewing families and tracing their behaviors, he was able to identify the source of the outbreak, the now famous Broad Street pump, a public water pump where locals went to collect drinking water. John Snow was able to persuade the city to…
