These lines are to commemorate my spectacular failure to win the North Street Book Prize with my 2024 collection “After Spruce: Poems in the Manner of Tom Jenks’ ‘Spruce’ During the Time of the Coronavirus Pandemic”.

Originally published Infection House July 2020

#ExperimentalPoetry #poem #poetry #PoetryCollection #PoetryCommunity #WritingCommunity #Australia #UnitedStates #coronavirus #COVID19 #pandemic #DonaldJTrump #ScottMorrison #GladysBerejiklian #SocialDistancing #WetMarket #Wuhan #SneezeGuard #ConvalescentPlasma #Outbreak #PPE #Hotspot #FalsePositive #HotelQuarantine #Pangolin #ImmunityStrategies #ToyotaCorona #ContactTracing #SanitationStation #tears

🚀 We’re speaking at NODES 25 (Neo4j Dev Conference)!

Human-Centered Contact Tracing Apps

📅 Thursday, 6 November 2025

🎉 What you’ll learn
• Graph modeling with Neo4j for contact tracing
• Privacy-first, human-centered design
• Architecture and real-world implementation examples

🔗 FREE Registration: s.id/NODES2025

⛳️ Bookmark the session URL:
https://neo4j.com/nodes-2025/agenda/human-centered-contact-tracing-apps/?utm_source=SpeakerContest&utm_campaign=Irwan&Kautsar

#NODES25 #Neo4j #GraphDatabase #ContactTracing

Measles outbreak investigation in Utah blocked by patient who refuses to talk https://arstechni.ca/ESmh #contacttracing #outbreak #arizona #measles #Health #Utah
Measles outbreak investigation in Utah blocked by patient who refuses to talk

The person refused to even tell health officials their address.

Ars Technica

„As an example, during the #Euro football tournament in 2021, days with England matches showed sharp spikes in exposures and transmissibility. Digital contact tracing technologies can help control epidemics not only by directly preventing transmissions but also by enabling rapid analysis at scale and with unprecedented resolution.“

#EURO2021 #ContactTracing #COVID19

Christophe #Fraser: New in #ScienceMagazine: app-based contact tracing for covid 🤒🤳📲 as well as reducing transmission, generated data for epidemic monitoring & analysis in real-time with unprecedented resolution.

#covid19 #ContactTracing

#nhs #COVID19 #app for England and Wales

#CoronaWarnApp

https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adm8103

Rural #Michigan has lost millions of #factoryfarm animals this year to #birdflu outbreak, and #dairyfarmers resent new #disinfection & #contacttracing mandates from #SwingState #Democrat Gov Whitmer and Biden Admin as spread of outbreak threatens livelihoods and local economies during an election year

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/bird-flu-response-michigan-sparks-covid-era-worry-farms-2024-07-10/

RT by @ECDC_EU: @WHOGOARN partnered with @ECDC_EU for a 2 day training on #ContactTracing & #GoData.

[2024-06-04 13:59 UTC]

In our latest #preprint https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.02.11.24302649v2, we evaluate whether scaled up testing would be enough to control a future #pandemic, avoiding both lockdowns and mass infection, and robust to failures of #ContactTracing. An appendix covers logistics, which seem achievable with sufficient investment/preparation. Let's do better next time.
Enhanced testing can substantially improve defence against several types of respiratory virus pandemic

Mass testing to identify and isolate infected individuals is a promising approach for reducing harm from the next acute respiratory virus pandemic. It offers the prospect of averting hospitalizations and deaths whilst avoiding the need for indiscriminate social distancing measures. To understand scenarios where mass testing might or might not be a viable intervention, here we modelled how effectiveness depends both on characteristics of the pathogen (R, time to peak viral load) and on the testing strategy (limit of detection, testing frequency, test turnaround time, adherence). We base time-dependent test sensitivity and time-dependent infectiousness on an underlying viral load trajectory model. We show that given moderately high public adherence, achievable frequent testing can prevent as many transmissions as more costly interventions such as school or business closures. With very high adherence and fast, frequent, and sensitive testing, we show that most respiratory virus pandemics could be controlled with mass testing alone. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement JP's work is supported by Open Philanthropy and the Wellcome Trust (Collaboration Award 206298/Z/17/Z, ARTIC-Network). JAH is supported by a Wellcome Trust Early Career Award (grant 225001/Z/22/Z). CW is supported by Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship (reference 224190/Z/21/Z). JPG's work is supported by the UK Health Security Agency and the UK Department of Health and Social Care. These funders had no role in the study design, data analysis, data interpretation, or writing of the report. The views expressed in this article are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the UK Health Security Agency or the UK Department of Health and Social Care. ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes All code developed for this study is available online at <https://github.com/JamesPetrie/MassTestingPublic>

medRxiv
#ContactTracing software could accurately gauge #COVID19 risk
#Epidemiologists in the# UK analyzed 7 million people who were notified that they were exposed to #COVID-19 by the NHS COVID-19 app in #England and #Wales between April 2021 and February 2022. Researchers found the app did, in fact, accurately translate the duration and proximity of a COVID-19 exposure to a relevant epidemiological risk score. Time spent with infected individuals is a key determinant of risk. https://arstechnica.com/science/2023/12/contact-tracing-software-could-accurately-gauge-covid-19-risk/
Contact-tracing software could accurately gauge COVID-19 risk

Time spent with infected individuals is a key determinant of risk.

Ars Technica

They wouldn't dream of canceling the event of course, which is the best way to prevent spread.

However, we could have required and provided #HighQualityMasks, testing prior to the event (with folks submitting results), testing upon arrival, and testing post event with #ContactTracing.

The venue had great ventilation so the addition of a mask requirement and #CovidTesting would have gone a long way in preventing a lot of spread.

Prior to the event, multiple staff members also got Covid, and it led to a lot of issues with planning and prep, in addition to exposing multiple folks to Covid. This could have also been prevented if our office still required folks to #MaskUp when in the office.