feedCorona Testing in a distributed republic.
29 March, 2020So my bet with elliot went south quickly and I already paid him a couple of days before we hit 20k Us deaths.
I am still optimistic though that
- lockdowns and social distancing will have a big effect
- sadly the very old sick are the main victms and that we’ll see exponential growth level off.
Figuring out a strategy for trying to return post lockdown but pre-vaccine is important, so here’s a modest proposal
- Prereq: quarantine ends and testing becomes much cheaper/faster available&
- When you get tested you associate it with guid/public key on your phone presumably in an app
- Testers publish guid, result and date of test to a database/block chain
- Now you want to get a hair cut or go-to a bar
- You have to tap your phone against another phone on the entryway (nfc presumably)
- If your phone’s guid is tested clear in n days you get a happy green
- If m’s day then maybe a warning orange buzz to remind you
- no test or past m days red alarm and social pressure or a bouncer makes you leave
N, M are configurable based on the establishment’s risk tolerance. A sporting event might require testing in last 2 days. Also maybe testing for antibodies gets you a higher n, m.
One of the goals here is to avoid facial or cell tracking and the draconian privacy invasion that entails. The business’s reviewer app could log/track who was where at what times and later warn people if they were the same place as person who later tested postive. This has some abuse potential though.
Pro’s
- Android phones with nfc are cheap for a bussines to buy.
- Can reset your guid and avoid bussiness that care.
Con’s:
- Tapping might spread disease.
- Hard to enforce at open areas like parks, playgrounds or malls
- Leads to a national id and government databzase