PROBLEM
Coronavirus, COVID-19
Current Solutions
Similar apps exist
- http://safepaths.mit.edu/
- COVID Symptom Tracker by ZOE (UK)
- covidnearyou.org
- Nation Wide Surveillence
BUT none of them provide the user with daily updated risks, and that's the key. It is ultimately up to the users that have it to know they do, so that they can stay home. The rest of the world does not need to know. All efforts above may be secure, but they ultimately send data to a destination anonymously to provide generic data for everyone. CovidNet provides customized data to the individual.
Example Situation
NOTE: This is in no way an alterative for official medical tests, nor is it a guaranteed indicator of COVID-19. This is merely a tool, when used correctly by communites, to alert asymptomatic carriers and provide ease to those showing extremely mild (potentially placebo) symptoms.
March 10th: 1,2 and 3 go on a Seabus together. 2 has coronavirus, is symptomatic, and will pass it to 1 and 3.
March 12th: 1, asymptomatic coronavirus has a gathering with 4 and 5 3, asymptomatic coronavirus plays tennis with 6 and 7 4, 5, 6 and 7 will all get coronavirus
March 14th: 6 and 7 develop symptoms. Something is wrong, they track the symptoms on the app. 4 goes to Costco where many are gathered
The app will catch the group playing tennis (3,6,7) and mark them all as high risk in a private and secure manner (no one except the app and the individual will know) The app will also always check back the last 30 days to correct and adjust It recalculates March 10, the original (1,2,3) and because 3 got marked high risk and 2 has symptoms, we can now catch and mark asymptomatic 1 as high probability/high risk The emphasis is we depend on majority group diagnosis, incorrect self-diagnosis and faulty data will be drowned out the more data we get
We also recalculate group 1,4,5 and remember 4 went to Costco, thinking they we’re fine
March 16th: SITUATION A: Costco has nobody reporting symptoms, there might’ve been a recovery or a faulty catch, they stay marked as precaution SITUATION B: Many individuals at that Costco that morning show symptoms, this is traced back to (1,4,5) and that entire group is marked as high risk.
THIS IS THE BENEFIT! Without the app, 1, 3, 4, 5 could be out in public thinking they don’t have it when in reality they’re asymptomatic!
NOTE: The drawback is this relies on A) Users to stay home when they’re classed as high risk B) Users providing the data and taking 30 seconds a day to report symptoms and roughly where they were
Considerations
This raises two groups of people that the app will ignore.
- Those who choose to go out even after a high risk classification. These people can be grouped with the people that don’t use the app at all. Although they are being a risk to everyone, the app is unable to fix that problem. The app can’t fix any problems. ITS SOLE PURPOSE IS TO GUIDE PEOPLE TOWARDS A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE SITUATION AND INFER IF YOUR PROBABILITY OF HAVING IT.
- Those who listen and are already staying home and are prepared to do so for months. These people can be grouped with those who are already diagnosed and don’t have the ability to use apps, let alone be out in public spreading. These people are under control and are not contributing to further spread.
The group at risk which this app WILL NOT consider:
- Older generation who won’t be using the app and may be a high risk carrier. These people can be grouped with people who may not have access to this technology, but still be a high risk carrier. This is a big issue for that demographic, however, RE-EMPHASIS, this app excels at notifying its user base about potential infections. Once a user of the app is infected (and spreads it) by a non-user, the app will catch that rapidly and notify the group individually.