The Silent Spread of Covid-19 May Be an Evolutionary Survival Strategy

Researchers at Princeton University report results of a study on asymptomatic transmission which may guide public health experts in planning quarantines, testing, and contact tracing.

The Princeton study was published May 8 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

The study examined the pros and cons of silent transmission on the pathogen’s long-term survival. Does transmission without symptoms enable the pathogen to infect greater numbers of people? Or does the lack of symptoms eventually lessen transmission and reduce the pathogen’s long-term survival?

The answer could inform how public health experts plan control measures such as quarantines, testing and contact tracing.

“An asymptomatic stage for various reasons could provide certain benefits to the pathogen,” said Bryan Grenfell, Princeton’s Kathryn Briger and Sarah Fenton Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Public Affairs, Woodrow Wilson School. “With the COVID-19 crisis, the importance of this asymptomatic phase has become extremely relevant

Bluetooth Signals From Your Smartphone Could Automate Covid-19 Contact Tracing While Preserving Privacy

A system that enables smartphones to transmit “chirps” to nearby devices could notify people if they have been near an infected person, say researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Imagine you’ve been diagnosed as Covid-19 positive. Health officials begin contact tracing to contain infections, asking you to identify people with whom you’ve been in close contact. The obvious people come to mind — your family, your coworkers. But what about the woman ahead of you in line last week at the pharmacy, or the man bagging your groceries? Or any of the other strangers you may have come close to in the past 14 days?

A team led by MIT researchers and including experts from many institutions is developing a system that augments “manual” contact tracing by public health officials, while preserving the privacy of all individuals. The system relies on short-range Bluetooth signals emitted from people’s smartphones. These signals represent random strings of numbers, likened to “chirps” that other nearby smartphones can remember hearing.

Security Expert Applies Startup’s Tech to COVID-19 Tracing

New Jersey Institute of Technology (NJIT) is using cybersecurity software to protect individual privacy involved in contact tracing.

The healthcare process of identifying who traveled close to contagious patients, known as contact tracing, typically assumes a lack of privacy — but NJIT cybersecurity expert Kurt Rohloff said his software is a good match to fix this.

Rohloff is known in the computer security field for his work in homomorphic encryption, which is a method of processing private information without decrypting it or exposing the sensitive parts. The method has roots in defense and intelligence applications, but is also useful for healthcare and the COVID-19 pandemic, he observed, in a recent United Nations Global Summit webinar series called AI For Good

.Working on data without decrypting it tends to sacrifice some speed, however, “Contact tracing provides a much more quick and [more] effective response than potentially locking down a country if done early enough,” said Rohloff, director of NJIT’s Cybersecurity Research Center. “It’s intended to be a less-painfulstep … but it is very, very privacy-intensive.”

How Contact Tracing Works for COVID-19

Experts from the University of California San Francisco Explain How Contact Tracing Will End the Coronavirus Pandemic

For all the anticipation around new COVID-19 tests, therapeutics and vaccines, public health experts know that the end of the pandemic will depend also on a low-tech, tried-and-true tactic – contact tracing.

Contact tracing sounds simple: alert anyone who has been in contact with an infected person and prevent them from spreading the disease to others. Yet contact tracing involves a tailored plan for each disease and a dedicated workforce with investigative know-how and people skills. California Gov. Gavin Newsom included the ability to contact trace among the indicators for loosening state-wide stay-at-home orders. To ramp up contact tracing for COVID-19 in San Francisco, UC San Francisco has been partnering with the San Francisco Department of Public Health (SFDPH) to provide technical assistance, training and manpower.

PREP: Pandemic Risk Evaluation Platform Privacy Protected Contact Tracking

University of Southern California researchers’ answer to contact mapping and risk analysis

A holistic platform, PREP includes contact mapping and risk analysis that are complementary to any contact-tracking app. The initial work on risk analysis and privacy is already funded by an NSF RAPID grant.

Online Training for Contact Tracing Launched

The University of Washington’s Northwest Center for Public Heath Practice has created the free, online course Every Contact Counts

As businesses and public spaces reopen across the nation, the old-school public health detective work known as contact tracing is becoming a major component of the battle to contain the novel coronavirus that causes the deadly COVID-19 disease. It’s an investigative strategy long used for finding and informing people exposed to contagious diseases, such as measles and STDs, and now agencies across the country focused on combating the pandemic need support to expand their workforce to conduct contact-tracing interviews and save lives. To provide training for this expanding workforce, the University of Washington’s Northwest Center for Public Health Practice created the free, online course Every Contact Counts to support public health agencies — including smaller, rural public health districts and tribal health departments — to help their existing and growing workforce in the art and science of conducting a contact-tracing interview.

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