Bourdeaux, Margaret; Mary L. Gray and Barbara Grosz

Given the ongoing sense of urgency, some, particularly in technology circles, [we] wonder if waiting for a healthcare worker to track down the virus makes sense. In a fight that depends on quickly finding and containing the coronavirus, couldn’t we do more with our mobile phones to put our country in a better position? Could the digital technologies that already connect us - sensing and tracing our every move - stop infected people in their tracks and help skip the step of large armies of human contact tracers having to call people? Unfortunately, this line of thinking has dominated much of the debate around how best to apply technology to contact tracing in the U.S.