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I think the point of contact tracing is not that it's a silver bullet used alone, but rather a piece used alongside more widespread testing to help lower the ra

I think the point of contact tracing is not that it's a silver bullet used alone, but rather a piece used alongside more widespread testing to help lower the rate of transmission. It may be reasonable to argue that these tracing apps alone aren't valuable, but once you add in greater test availability, it seems like they can help. https://ethics.harvard.edu/covid-roadmap https://ethics.harvard.edu/covid-roadmap

deeringc 6y ago
Right - this is just a way of helping to prioritizing who gets tested. Given that testing kits will always be a limited resource (you can't simply test everyone, everyday) it makes a lot of sense to find sub-populations who are more likely to be positive. That doesn't mean you don't test anyone else (eg. those with symptoms, those in sensitive jobs) - it just lets you use a certain percentage of your testing capacity one those people who have been in proximity with confirmed cases. As you say, it's not a silver bullet but in combination with a slew of other approaches can help reduce the rate of transmission rate.