Thread by @ojwatson92

In light of @MRC_Outbreak report on US and UK #COVIDー19 epidemics, better tools for containment are needed to prevent additional waves. As @trvrb and others note, a technological solution should be developed. Singapore govt has just launched the Trace Together app. 1/n

https://twitter.com/trvrb/status/1240444839432318976

tracetogether.gov.sg is a phone app for contact tracing, which will speed up how quickly the govt can identify potential transmission events and alert potentially infected individuals. 2/n

Trace together uses bluetooth to detect when users have spent more than 30 minutes within 2m of each other, constituting a significant contact event. User ids and contacts are encrypted stored on user's phone and only shared if user is identified as contacting a known case. 3/n

No location data is stored, with only the timing of the contact event stored. This date and time allows the gov't to know which individuals contacted the case when they were infectious. I may be wrong, but without location data this should lessen identifiability issues. 4/n

Reasons why this works for Singapore:
1. People love their phones. Was in SG in Jan and spent time raging that no one looked where they were walking as they are always glued to their phones.
2. Phone penetration in SG is very high
3. Contact tracing has been effective in SG 5/n

4. The app will be widely downloaded due to the SG pop. taking covid response seriously and they have adherence to gov't advice.
5. The app will be downloaded quickly as gov't will advertise the need for the app to be used widely and the SG pop will listen to this. 6/n

Reasons why this will not work (in SG and outside):
1. Travellers from outside SG, which represent a major proportion of SG cases, are unlikely to download the app.
2. Data privacy trust significantly greater issue outside of SG - will impact app adoption rate. 7/n

Although current focus should be on suppression in the UK and US, we do need to spend this time preventing additional waves. I'm not sure what that technological solution looks like but this is definitely a step in the right direction. 8/n

But could we go further? Would all android users be happy if next update included something like this? What would a sharing agreement across countries be to ensure that when global travel resumes we are safeguarded? How could we build pop trust that privacy is not breached? 9/n

Questions we would need to ask:
1. Is country pop. happy with this style of app?
2. How serious would the current epidemic need to be for sentiment to change and by how much?
3. By how much do we slow onward transmission from importations if x% people download this app? 10/n

4. How could we reassure pop that privacy concerns and listening in are minimal?
5. How much more effective is this app if the same app is used by x% of countries?
6. Could this be added to already widespread apps and does this speed up uptake and cross country issues? 11/11