MIT reviews COVID-19 contact tracking app Aarogya Setu; rates 2 on 5 stars

To keep track of all automated COVID-19 contact tracing efforts around the world, renowned publication MIT Technology Review has launched the Covid Tracing Tracker.

Moneycontrol News

May 12, 2020 / 17:14 IST

To keep track of all automated COVID-19 contact tracing efforts around the world, renowned publication MIT Technology Review has launched the Covid Tracing Tracker. This is a database for details of all automated contact tracing efforts being undertaken by different countries.

The Indian government's Aarogya Setu app, which was launched in light of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been awarded two out of five stars by the publication.

Track this blog for LIVE updates on the COVID-19 pandemic

The tracker has documented contact tracing government-backed apps of 25 countries, which have been reviewed as per several parameters. The five stars are awarded based on the following parameters:

>> Is it voluntary? In some cases, apps are opt-in—but in other places many or all citizens are compelled to download and use them.
>> Are there limitations on how the data gets used? Data may sometimes be used for purposes other than public health, such as law enforcement—and that may last longer than COVID-19.
>> Will data be destroyed after a period of time? The data the apps collect should not last forever. If it is automatically deleted in a reasonable amount of time (usually a maximum of around 30 days) or the app allows users to manually delete their own data, we award a star.
>> Is data collection minimized? Does the app collect only the information it needs to do what it says?
>> Is the effort transparent? Transparency can take the form of clear, publicly available policies and design, an open-source code base, or all of these.

COVID-19 Vaccine

Frequently Asked Questions

How does a vaccine work?

A vaccine works by mimicking a natural infection. A vaccine not only induces immune response to protect people from any future COVID-19 infection, but also helps quickly build herd immunity to put an end to the pandemic. Herd immunity occurs when a sufficient percentage of a population becomes immune to a disease, making the spread of disease from person to person unlikely. The good news is that SARS-CoV-2 virus has been fairly stable, which increases the viability of a vaccine.

How many types of vaccines are there?

There are broadly four types of vaccine — one, a vaccine based on the whole virus (this could be either inactivated, or an attenuated [weakened] virus vaccine); two, a non-replicating viral vector vaccine that uses a benign virus as vector that carries the antigen of SARS-CoV; three, nucleic-acid vaccines that have genetic material like DNA and RNA of antigens like spike protein given to a person, helping human cells decode genetic material and produce the vaccine; and four, protein subunit vaccine wherein the recombinant proteins of SARS-COV-2 along with an adjuvant (booster) is given as a vaccine.

What does it take to develop a vaccine of this kind?

Vaccine development is a long, complex process. Unlike drugs that are given to people with a diseased, vaccines are given to healthy people and also vulnerable sections such as children, pregnant women and the elderly. So rigorous tests are compulsory. History says that the fastest time it took to develop a vaccine is five years, but it usually takes double or sometimes triple that time.

Show