Re:Germany's Covid contact tracing app is Open Source
by Schlaefer on Wednesday June 03, 2020 @10:12AM
(#23403500)
> So the false positive rate is quite important, as it potentially means sending thousands of people into home-quarantine.
Of course it's important and of the course the lower the false positive rate the better. But the argument remains: even with a high false positive rate, what's the net result? Maybe overall it's worth putting thousands of false positive in quarantine now than a whole city of millions two months later.
There are so many variables and known unknowns in this approach. I argue that even with all the well reasoned arguments against, at this scale and with this stakes they stay theoretical until we actually do it. Let's try at least once, and if it fails it's still knowledge gained.
Of course it's important and of the course the lower the false positive rate the better. But the argument remains: even with a high false positive rate, what's the net result? Maybe overall it's worth putting thousands of false positive in quarantine now than a whole city of millions two months later.
There are so many variables and known unknowns in this approach. I argue that even with all the well reasoned arguments against, at this scale and with this stakes they stay theoretical until we actually do it. Let's try at least once, and if it fails it's still knowledge gained.